I Know Your Face
by Tsukiko AlienWitch
Summary: The TMM memebers are vampire hunters who work for the Blue Knight and Ichigo is the deadliest of them all. She hunts without compassion and hesitation. Nothing can stop her from killing them all. Except maybe one. Rated M for violence, language, and sex.
1. My Beginning

**A/N: I know that this is completely out of the blue but I saw a few action vampire and vampire hunter movies and I got this idea. This was originally inspired by the two Blade movies. I haven't seen the third one but hopefully I will soon. A friend let me borrowed his two Blade movies and I got this idea. I just want to unleash this one while I'm still in the mood for it. I haven't been in the moods to write other stories in so long so I'm thinking of this as bliss.**

**This is a story that is rated M for violence/gore, language, and sexual themes. So be on the lookout. This is the first time I've ever done this so I hope you like it. Unless you have a dark side, this isn't for the angelic souls. I might have to change it to MA rating. But I need you to tell me.**

**I do NOT own TMM or the songs or the movies that I use in my stories. Thank you for favoriting and reviewing my stories. Thank you and please enjoy!!**

**Also! For the next couple of chapters, everything will be in Ichigo's point of view. You got that? ICHIGO'S POINT OF VIEW!!!**

**Thank you and enjoy.**

**I Know Your Face**

Ch. 1: My Beginning

Every story has a beginning. My beginning started with a fire. Fire and blood.

I was seven years old when my once normal, happy life came to a closed. It was shortly after sunset on the outskirts of the village. There were only two houses with a barn for each – one of them was my home. Before that night, I remember everything that happened before then. The happy moments I had with my loved ones – my parents and my childhood friend who was more like a brother to me than anything else. Now, all of them are all gone and it all happened in one night. It was going to be a birthday surprise for him and I wanted to give him my present but I never got the chance. I was only gone for a few minutes, tending to a horse that was acting quite strangely.

"_It's okay,"_ I told the horse as I was trying to caress it's nostrils. _"What's wrong, horsey? Did something frighten you?"_

Then I heard movement.

I turned around and I saw a lamp by the door rocking back and forth. As if something just went right outside the barn in super speed. The horse started acting crazy again and I was trying to calm it down.

"_Relax,"_ I told him. _"Be calm. Be calm."_

_**Crash**_

I turned around back outside and I heard screaming, screams of my parents. I completely forgot about calming the horse and ran outside to see my house on fire. All I could still remember so vividly of what I did. I was screaming, calling for my parents and pleading and hoping that they would come out. Then I saw the car that belonged to my friend and his family. I knew they were inside and they were burning to death, with my parents.

I ran inside. The back door was my only entrance for the front door was on fire and the back door wasn't. I went in and a huge pile of smoke hit me. I was coughing. I couldn't breathe and my eyes were tearing from the burning sensation of the smoke. Still I ran in.

There was fire everywhere and the roof was starting to collapse. I did my best to get away from the falling pieces of wood and I tried to cover myself as best as I could with my arms. I was screaming for my parents and for my aunty and my uncle, that was what I called our friends. But the one thing I know I did was that I was calling the name of my friend more than I was calling anyone else. Then I finally found them.

I found the bodies of my parents and our friends in the living room. My mind was a blank. The only part of it that was working was the part that was recording the image of their bodies on the ground, blood surrounding them and the fire burning around them into my heart. I was already having a hard time breathing in that burning house but when I saw them, it took every bit of my will power to keep breathing. Then I noticed something behind them. I dared a look and I think that was when I couldn't breathe anymore. The shock was too much.

It was the first time I ever saw a vampire and he had his fangs inside the neck of my friend.

The vampire was young, or he looked young. Possibly in his early or mid twenties from what I could see. He was wearing a black outfit, but I couldn't exactly tell what it was because I really wasn't paying attention. I just only knew that his long, boney fingers were holding my friend's head, to lift it up so that his neck may reveal enough skin for him to bite on. His long jet black hair that draped over his shoulders hid away most of my friend's body and covered nearly his whole face. All I saw at the time was his mouth covered in red blood. His black hair looked like the darkest shadows in the depths of every human heart in the world. I think he finally noticed my presence after staring for so long because he released my friend's neck to expose the two puncture wounds, smothered with blood and more still oozing from the wound. That was when I saw that vampire's face, a face I would never remember. A face covered with blood and the eyes of a demon. His eyes, I remembered, were very light blue. The kind of blue where you know that this demon before you had no heart, no compassion. The eyes that belonged to a monster.

After that, I just blacked out.

If I had spent my life being an artist and making paintings, they would all be filled with horror and death. If I could paint, I would pain that image that would remain with me forever, in every horrifying detail.

I woke up in what felt like days after I saw that and I woke up to the sight of blue eyes.

"_EYYYYYAAAA!!!"_ I screamed, as soon as I saw those eyes.

But the man with the blue eyes quickly said, _"Calm down, little girl. I'm not going to hurt you."_

"_No!"_ I still screamed. _"Get away from me!!"_

Then he grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

"_Look at me, girl! Look at me and tell me if I'm gonna hurt you."_

I stared at him, terror was the only thing that was making my body work properly. But as I stared at him a moment longer, I knew right there that he wasn't going to hurt me. He has the same blue eyes as the monster who killed my family but his eyes were different. They were blue, like that monster but the eyes that were staring right at me with determination of understanding, I knew I could trust him and I knew that he wouldn't hurt me.

I calmed down and when he saw that, he exhaled in relaxation. He told me, _"That's a good girl."_ From the sound of his voice, you would think of him as a stern father full of wisdom. He looked at me with so much compassion as he asked, _"Are you alright?"_

Then I just broke down crying.

I cried so hard that day and he didn't mind. I leaned against his chest, begging for comfort and he gave it to me. His arms felt so strong against my shivering form. He just held me, warming my freezing body and giving me the comfort I needed after what happened. I cried, until the last drop of tears fell from eyes, forever.

Later he told me of what became of my once normal life – how the house was burned to the grounds, how the bodies inside were burned to ashes, and how he found the body of my friend not too far from the burning house and how he was completely drained of blood. He told me about the existence of vampires and if I wanted to, he could teach me how to protect myself from them now that I have been exposed into their world.

"_But sire,"_ I started, nervous about what he's offering me with tear stains plastered with tears, _"what…who are you?"_

He answered, _"I am a vampire hunter. I have no name but I am known as the Blue Knight."_


	2. Pudding’s Beginning

**A/N: I'm on a role here. Whoa! I know that I'm sending this chapters out fast, but I can't help it! Besides, I don't think chapter one can work without chapter 2, nor can it work without chapter 3. It just wouldn't make any sense. So tomorrow, hopefully, I am unleashing chapter 3 and then you guys can tell me how the story's going so far. I still want to know, even now but I would understand if you guys don't tell me till after chapter 3. It's completely understandable.**

**I do NOT own TMM or the songs or the movies that I use in my stories. Only the ideas and changes are mine. Thank you all for reading this new story and please review! I wanna know how it's doing know that it's out in the world! Thank you and please enjoy!**

Ch. 2: Pudding's Beginning

For the past ten years, I have been with the Blue Knight and he's been training me to become a vampire hunter killing machine. He taught me how to use all different kinds of weapons – such as swords, daggers, darts, guns, bow and arrow, whips, etc. I killed my first vampire when I was nine and I had my first massacre when I was nine and a half all by myself. I showed no mercy to my victims, no matter how old they choose to look or the circumstances.

I once had to go on a mission that the Blue Knight assigned to me about. He told me that it was a mission of the disappearance of a little girl and a father who's been missing for nearly six months. The family had some problems anyway. The mother and the father had a divorce about two months before the father went missing. Then he suddenly showed up in six years but he was invisible. No one really saw him. They only heard his voice over the phone and that was it. Then he asked if he could pick up his the little girl from school and the mother agreed because her daughter has wanted to see him for a really long time. She never came home after that. She went missing and the mother called the police, claiming that her ex-husband kidnapped her child. It was around that time that there have been some recent killings of a rogue animal. That was where I came in. I figured most of it out. The ex-husband have become a vampire and now he has taken the one thing that meant more to him when he was a human than anything. I was meant to find her and hopefully, bring her home. That and bring down the husband.

There are a few things that are needed to know about vampires. They can be turned with a single bite. If the vampire bites a human and doesn't kill the human after taking some of his blood, then the vampire disease will spread. There is a venom in the vampire's fangs that can contains the vampire disease as it spreads throughout the body in only a couple of hours or less. During those few painful hours the victim has left of his or her humanity, the victim will experience what is called 'a flashback of their life'. So by the time the victim has completely turned into a vampire, all of those memories will be gone. Or so I thought.

I found the father and the little girl but I found the little girl feeding on some security guards in a construction area. Before the father became a vampire, he used to be a construction worker. The building he was working before he went missing was finished and it became a company building. The only ones who would be there at night are the security guards who are hired to guard the building. The little girl was feeding on one of them. When I saw her, she had lost every trace of humanity within her. She became an innocent looking, killing machine. I had no choice but to do what I've always done. I took out my gun loaded with silver bullets and I gave her a quick demise. It was the last I could do for the soon to be moaning mother. I found the father in the back of the room and he looked like an guilty, empty shell. I still remember the words he said that night.

"She wasn't supposed to go out of control. I thought that if she saw me, she would remember as I remembered her when I saw her picture. I never…I never meant for any of this to happen."

The effects of what's he's done only made a mother worry about her little girl and ended the lives of so many people. He claimed that he never meant for any of this to happen and that it was stupid to think like that. He should have expected this to happen the moment he decided to come back. I too gave him a quick demise. I pointed the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He was hit with the silver bullet and his whole body looked like it was caught on fire without the flames. The heat spread through his body, burning his flesh and bone and clothes in a matter of seconds like fire on dry, dead leaves. Then his body turned to ashes and it disappeared. The same thing happened to the little girl. The only thing that was left was the little girl's backpack. I took that and returned it to the mother. I told her that I couldn't find her daughter's body but there was a lot of blood in the room where I also found the burning corpse of her ex. She cried for both of them and that was the end of that mission.

I did gain one thing from the mission. There is a chance that the vampires can remember who they were when they were humans, only when they see something familiar. It made the Blue Knight and I think about the information we have about them. We know that they can control how they look. Not like they can turn into a monster in horror films or anything like that. They can control how old they can look. If a 50 year old man turns into a vampire, he can appear in front of the general public as a 30 year old man or he can look even younger once he controls his blood thirst. The only down fall about that power is that they can't look older than how old they should be in human years. A ten year old child cannot turn into a twenty year old person once he or she's been turn, unless that child waits another ten years or so. The vampires can also be super fast and super strong. Nothing new about that.

But whatever new fact they have that we don't know about, the only thing that really mattered was that we know how to kill them. The chance of them even remembering their humans lives is just an extra sprinkle on an ice cream sundae. It doesn't change the flavor. The big ice cream part of the sundae is that the vampires can be wounded by wood and they can be killed by garlic, silver, and sunlight. As long as we know how to kill them, that's all that really matters.

The Blue Knight told me about himself a bit. He goes around the world, hunting vampires and inspiring others to do the same. There were many hunters before his time and they all did a pretty good job with keeping their hunting a secret. The Blue Knight used to work alone but because I was only a child and exposed to the vampire world, he took me in and we sort of became partners in crime. Shortly after adding me to the team, he added many others as well.

Our first three members of the team came in all at once. It was during a mission of a vampire who apparently was fond of a particular human. He apparently adored a human woman and she, supposedly, adored him. At the time, I didn't believe that vampires had any human feelings. It was found out that the woman the vampire adored was raped by her boss and she committed suicide because of it. So the vampire decided to take matters into his own hands. He went to the family who defiled and killed her; the Shirogane family. There were three kids hanging out at the house that night – one of them was the Shirogane heir, Ryou Shirogane. His girlfriend, Mint Aizawa and his best friend Keiichiro Akasaka were with him. Ryou was smoking, Keiichiro was working on some kind of contraption, a 'tech geek' he was known for, and Mint was trying to seduce Ryou. They both heard a crash and went to go find it. They found Ryou's parents on the stair way, Ryou's mother was in a puddle of her own blood and it looked like her neck was snapped and Ryou's father was in the jaws of the vampire. When he saw them, he saw the resemblance Ryou had in his two victims and attacked him. Ryou ended up losing his right arm and losing his left eye. Mint found a bow and arrow and used them. She only stuck arrows in his back, wounding him because they were wood and I finally came in, finishing him off. The Blue Knight took care of Ryou and offered a place for the three of them. They took it, especially Mint. There was potential in her so after training her to master her weapon, bow and arrows, she joined me on the hunt. The only problem I have with her is that she acts like the snobby rich she grew up to be. She thinks that she's better than me and before I got used to her, I was willing to show her who exactly the better fighter is. Keiichiro, being the tech person, helped with modifying we could use. He even made Ryou an arm for him to use. Apparently, Ryou was quite the tech person himself and an obnoxious, snobby teenager himself. With the two of them working together, we could find vampires faster, use communicators, and we could use weapons that shot out garlic or silver. Ryou especially made Mint some exploding arrows for her to use and a bow that could launch an arrow 6,000 feet per second. They're perfect for each other.

Next came Lettuce Midorikawa. We ran into her during a mission in Moscow. She was after the same vampire we were. The Blue Knight once told me of vampire hunting families going back to the time that vampires even existed in our world. Lettuce is the oldest of her family so she inherited the job without questioning. Lettuce was defiantly an interesting character when you first meet her. You would first think that she doesn't have what it takes. She has too kind of a heart and could easily be manipulated by the vampires and might even hesitate to finish one off. But when she's working, she's a completely person. To get information that she wants, she would act like a whore for a little bit and in exactly two minutes of getting to the first stages of having sex with a vampire, she would ask for a quiet area and in three minutes time, she would come back with information and the vampire dead. Her weapons, which really impresses me is that she uses daggers. It helps when you're up and personal with a vampire kissing your neck and touching your ass, but I didn't really think of her as someone who likes to get up and personal with a vampire all the time. The one thing that really fascinated me about her was the fact that she doesn't kill without reason. She would kill a vampire if that vampire is her target and she would kill a vampire if they attack her. I first thought that the method showed how soft her heart really is but then I started to like her. She listens, she understands, and above all, she's a saint. After working with us, she joined our team, especially when her parents thought it was alright after knowing that the Blue Knight is the leader of our little hunting group.

Next came Zakuro Fujiwara. She became a hunter after her family was killed by a vampire, like me. But no one taught her ropes of hunting. She found all of that out herself. She learned about their weaknesses and she interoperated dancing as a method of fighting. She also used a weapon she customized, a whip but it was made of silver and it would inject garlic extract through the needles it has once it punctures the vampire's skin. By day, Zakuro was a celebrity; a singer, actor, dancer, model, you name it. Mint knew her and absolutely adores her as a role model. The bad part was that in New York, where we met her, she was an independent hunter. She wanted to hunt the vampire by herself. I never saw Mint so upset but I guess it's a hit below the belt to hear that the one you admire most wants nothing to do with you. Then at a warehouse, from the new devices we got from Keiichiro and Ryou, we found a hoard of vampires in there and Zakuro was in there alone without the knowledge of a hundred deadly vampires in there. We came in and helped her. There was a lot and when we worked together, we were able to see the light of the next day, but not unscratched. A few dislocations and broken ribs here and there but we were going to survive and that was all that matter when we saw the burning bodies of vampires. Zakuro appreciated the fact that we helped her, despite how mean she was at us in the beginning when she rejected us. She told us that she would make an exception with us and joined our group. Mint was happy and I couldn't help but feel a bit happy myself.

Our new member became a high school kid, studying for colleges by the name of Masaya Aoyama. An intelligent kid and the captain of the kendo team, or he was until we met him. There was a congratulations party at his house because he was accepted in a medical school that his parents wanted him to get in. But during that party, he met a girl and she was really pretty. A small, petite blonde with gorgeous green eyes and fair skin. He fell for her charm and her beauty. But what he didn't know was that she was a vampire who was part in a pack that decided to crash his party. She lead him away while he was drunk and the rest of her friends was still in his house. Masaya and the vampire made out and such, but then she was going to bite him and he saw the fangs. He freaked out and tried to run away from her, but he couldn't. Right when he was going to be killed by her, I stopped her. The rest of my team went to the house when we heard the blood-screeching screams. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake but the blonde vampire was tricky and she was fast. I dropped my sword and I tried shooting her but she was able to get close to me and hit the guns away. As she was standing over me, I saw Masaya grab a hold of the sword. I thought he ran but apparently he didn't. She asked me if I had any last words.

I said, _"Yeah, I do. Go to hell."_

Masaya charged at her and sliced her head clean off. Her body burned at his feet and he was panting. I told him thanks for the help and my team came to greet me moments later. They reported that all of the humans are dead and now, so are the vampires. I felt a bit of pity towards Masaya for he just lost his family and his friends. It didn't take long for him to join, especially when we tried to convince him to get out of town and start anew because the vampires would come after him now that he's a survivor of a vampire attack. He joined and with his Kendo skills, he seemed like he had what it takes. His main weapon is the sword and his side weapon, like the rest of us are guns.

As more people joined our team, I noticed something. We become vampire hunters for a reason. Some of the hunters I've met became hunters because they want to. Thought it was cool to blow suckheads up to the skies or to cut them up. Some do it because of family tradition, like Lettuce, and some do it out of revenge for lost love ones, like me and the rest of the team. Especially our last and latest member, Pudding Fong.

Her story was very similar to mine but as I lost a lot of people, she only lost one. Pudding was around the same age I was when it happened. However, she lived in the city in an apartment building on the 'bad side' of the city. She had a neighbor, school classmate, and best friend, Taruto his name was I believe. She loved him more than a brother. She honestly believed that she was deeply in love with him but the way he acted with her was like a big brother and an annoying sister. She didn't care. So long as she was able to spend about every waking moment with him. They saw each other every day, they had each other's backs every time they ran into trouble, they hung out together, and they cared each other deeply, just as much as my friend and I were.

Then her family had to go to China for a vacation. A break from the American city life. Her mother is Japanese but she loved the Chinese life so she married Pudding's father. Pudding was only going to be gone for only a month and she promised Taruto that she would come back before he knew it. But while she was gone, death was ready to claim him. There was one thing that separated Pudding's friend from mine. Taruto had leukemia and after she left, he was having attacks and was soon hospitalized. It was almost like Pudding was his cure and without her, he was going to meet his end sooner than expected. Pudding came back in a month as promised but when she went to his apartment room, he wasn't there. She found out later that his disease took a turn for the worst and he was hospitalized. They even told her that he wasn't going to live long. She ran to the hospital like she was running from the vampires to save her own life. It was the hardest she ever ran and the time she was running was nearly sunset. She tried so hard but by the time she reached his room when the sun was gone from the sky, she saw almost the same thing I saw when I ran into the burning house.

She saw a long black hair vampire demon with his fangs inside Taruto's neck. She just stood there, utterly frozen. Her mind became a total blank. She recorded the image of the black hair demon feeding on her friend as I recorded the same image in my head many years ago. His black hair draping over his shoulders like a shadow as it covers up about half of his face and half of Taruto's body. His boney white fingers supporting Taruto's head so that more of his neck was bare and his fangs inside Taruto's neck. Another difference between her image and mine besides the surrounding fires and the burning flames as back ground, Taruto was still conscious. He saw Pudding when she came in. When she just stood there for what felt like the longest time, he tried lifting his hand to her, reaching for her. His hand was shaking and his eyes were full of the pain of the black hair vampire's fangs and his life being sucked away. Despite his movement and despite the fact that a human is watching, the demon grasp Taruto's body a little tighter and bite harder. Pudding told me that Taruto's eyes went blank before they closed and his hand dropped to his side.

"_Aren't you bold, Deep Blue?"_

Pudding heard the voice of the Blue Knight behind her at the door but she didn't turn around. Her eyes were glue to Taruto's dying form. She only turned around when the black hair vampire pulled his fangs away from Taruto and looked up at the Blue Knight with his demon ice blue eyes and his lips smothered in Taruto's blood. Pudding remembered his expression being angry or insulted for being interrupted in his meal. Pudding turned around and she saw the Blue Knight just standing at the door frame with his sword at his side and his hand on the handle, ready to unsheathe it and use it this demon.

"_Feeding in a hospital. It's practically a buffet, which makes it the perfect place for us hunters to find you sons of bitches."_

Pudding heard a hiss coming from Deep Blue and by the time she turned around, Deep Blue was gone and he took Taruto's body with him as well.

"_Damn."_

She heard the Blue Knight swore. She turned around and she saw that he was going to leave.

"_Wait, na no da!"_ she screamed. He did and she ran out of the room to get to him. _"What's going on, na no da?! Who was that, na no da?! What was he doing to Taru-Taru?! Where is Taru-Taru?!"_

She asked so many question, to the point where the Blue Knight placed his strong hands on her shoulders and said, _"Relax. You're crying."_ Indeed, she was. Tears were rolling down her face without her knowing. Only when he mentioned it did she notice. Then like me, she started crying and he held her like how a father holds a crying child. After that the Blue Knight told her everything – the vampires, what they feed on, how to kill them, and the identity of that black hair vampire, Deep Blue.

Deep Blue is said to be one of the oldest vampire in the world and he's the most blood thirsty. He was the one who killed my friend and he is my number one target, just as he is the Blue Knight's number one target since the day the Blue Knight became a hunter. It was how he found me and now it's how he found Pudding.

He brought her to us and she agreed to leave her family for a life time of hunting. The lost of her best friend became too much and knowing that there is something she could do, she's willing to risk her life for it, literally.

"_I know that you think that I still have a lot to learn before I hunt these monsters, na no da,"_ she told us when the Blue Knight introduced her to us. He told us her story and I felt so much compassion and sympathy for her. We're the same and that was why I took her words so seriously. _"But I've been trained since I was born in the deadliest of martial arts, na no da. My father used to be in war and he's an expert on explosives, na no da. He gave me the knowledge to make bombs, na no da. Until you think I'm ready to go with you on the hunt, I'll help you make explosives to kill those bastards, na no da! I swear on my life I will hunt Deep Blue and I will kill him, na no da!! So that when he takes his final breath of his damnable existence, I will be in peace and follow after Taru-Taru. This world is not worth living in if Taru-Taru is not in it, na no da."_

Pudding was crying when she said those words. I understood her so well and that was why I didn't give her the whole speech about valuing you life, blah, blah, blah. Because there was a time that I felt like I should do the same once Deep Blue is dead. My friend's life ended that night and mine didn't. It wasn't fair.

And so, Pudding shed her last tears of her aching heart and joined our team. Her friend's death became her beginning as my friend's death became my beginning as well.


	3. Lettuce’s Beginning

**A/N: Okay, this should be the last chapter that's in Ichigo's point of view. After this, it would be in everyone's point of view! Hopefully…**

**Major quick note! This chapter contains some lemon in it. Possibly not a whole lot but it still has lemon in it. I hope you guys still like it though.**

**I do NOT own TMM or the songs or the movies I use in my stories. I only come up with the changes and the ideas for them. Thank you all for the wonderful favs and I hope that you would all soon review. Thank you and please enjoy!!**

Ch. 3: Lettuce's Beginning

Besides Pudding, I think Lettuce is another dear person to me in my team. Everyone on the team is precious to me, even the snobby princess, Mint and the obnoxious jock, Ryou. But Lettuce is a very kind person. She has the soft, gentle heart of a mother and she trusts me as I trust her. She told me about her family and how the oldest has always been in the vampire hunting business since vampires existed. But she told me that she doesn't like to being a killer. She hates being a hunter and she wishes that she wasn't pressured into this, but it was either going to be her or her little brother, someone who she treasures more than life itself. She is a very kind person to be doing something she doesn't want to do for someone else.

She even trusted me with the one thing that could jeopardize her vampire hunting career and her very life. I think she only told me because she needed to tell someone or she might explode.

It was a while ago but before she met any of us, she was taking a morning walk in her home town in Spain. She was trying to calm her mind because she just had a talk with her parents about how important it is to never show mercy to a vampire because they would trick humans into letting them give their blood to them willingly. Even back then, Lettuce was such an innocent, kind hearted girl. She was having that talk with her parents because there was a vampire who was part of a gang of vampires she was hunting. She killed most of them when she set up a bomb that was full of silver nitrate. The explosion was supposed to unleash billions and billions of silver particles that if any vampire was close enough, would get infected and die. It also caused an explosion that caused some pieces of wood to go springing out like daggers. There was one vampire who survived her bomb. She saw that he had a wooden stake in his arm and he looked like he was in a lot of pain. She had enough time to raise her gun and kill him, but she didn't. She only stared at him and he ran away.

During her walk, she was waiting at a cross walk when she heard something – something that no regular human would catch. She heard wincing and a lot of it. She saw that it came from a dark alley and went inside. There she saw a vampire, but not just any vampire – the vampire who she spared. The wooden stake was out of him but he was still bleeding and he had some burn marks on him. Lettuce learned that vampires can regenerate quickly, if they had enough blood. Judging the how weak and terrible he looked, she knew that he hasn't have any blood since before she met him. Instead of leaving him to die, she approached him. He finally noticed her when she was kneeling by his side and his first reaction was hissing at her like a scared animal trying to protect himself.

"_Now don't start that,"_ she told him, like an owner of a pet taking control. _"Is that anyway to talk to someone who is trying to help you?"_

He was still baring his fangs at her as he asks, _"Why would a vampire hunter such as yourself help me? I don't want your damn help."_

Lettuce told me that she was acting like her strong, confident self when she was talking to him._ "Rather you want it or not, it doesn't matter. I'm helping you because I have no reason to kill you. I don't kill without reason"_ After that, he just relaxed and she was able to touch him. He didn't say a word for the longest time. She only examined his wounds. It was bad. Especially if she really wanted him to survive, he needed some blood now!

Lettuce said that she tried her best to stop his bleeding until the sun was at least hiding in the clouds. When that time came, she placed her jacket over him and helped him up. She went as fast as she could and as sneaky as she could to get to the nearest motel and get a room. She paid for the room and first put the vampire in the closest because the sun was coming out. She closed the door and blocked the sunlight from the windows with the blinds. It was still too much light so she told him to wait while she was going to the grocery story. She got black garbage bags, lots of them and she bought a medical kit and some raw meat for him to suck on because there was no way she was going to let him take a bite of her.

At the time, she didn't understand why she was trying to help a vampire, her enemy. Why was she trying to heal the very thing she was born to destroy? Or why is she going so far as being risked seeing with a vampire? Half the time, she didn't understood why she did it. She only understood that he was a wounded creature and she wanted to help him.

The first thing she did was check the closet when she came back. He was still there and some of the sunlight came in. She instantly came in, burning his skin. She closed the closet and showed a bit of her real self from the other side of the door.

"_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"_ she repeated, as if worrying that he might hate her forever if she doesn't apologize. She told him to hang on while she covered up the sunlight. She used the black plastic bags to make better blinds to help block out the sun and it worked. The room became dark enough for the vampire to come out.

After helping him out of the closet, Lettuce helped him to the bed and started on his wounds. He still didn't talk to her. He didn't tell her that it was a worst of her effort to try and heal him as if he were human and he didn't mention her little attitude slip up when she accidently gave him more burns. The only time he made a noise was when she was putting hydrogen peroxide on his wound in his arm.

She asked, _"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you alright?"_ But he wouldn't answer her. He didn't even look at her. He did look like he was thinking about something.

So she tried to start a conversation with him.

"_What's your name?"_ she asked him. He still didn't look at her. _"M-My name is Lettuce and that's all I'm telling you. I may be trying to save you but it doesn't mean I trust you, yet."_ He still didn't talk to her. He was as silent as if he were already dead. She ended up stopping. She apparently didn't have as much as she acted when she was working.

Lettuce took care of him for days. She left the 'don't disturb sign' on the handle so that no one will see him and she left him pieces of raw meat for him to suck on, but she would end up finding out that he didn't. For the first three days, he didn't have a single drop of blood and he was suffering, closer than ever to death.

"_I haven't been to any missions, lately,"_ she told him, trying to start conversation again. He still didn't respond and the rotten meat that she left for him the night before was still on the counter next to him. She just came in and she was putting some more pieces of meat in the cooler inside the motel room.

The rotten piece of meat was now haunting her, taunting her. She asked, _"I see that you didn't eat again. Why not?"_ No response. Finally, she was getting ready to burst. _"Why won't you take it?!"_ she asked. _"You're dying! Obviously, the bandages and medicine I use to help you are not working! You need blood to heal and unless you consume any, you'll…"_ Lettuce told me that it was the first time she was being so outspoken like that. But she couldn't finish the sentence.

"_I told you before, didn't I?"_ he finally asked. It was a surprise to hear him speak, even though his voice sounded horsy and full of pain. After three days of not having a single drop of blood, his skin looked pretty sunken in, revealing his boney self. He looked like a corpse rotting away and each day was like a month's worth of decay on a regular human body. He told her, _"I didn't want your help in the streets and I don't need your help now. It was a waste of your time and effort to come here every day, trying to heal me, and trying to feed me. You call us monsters when the real monsters are you and every hunter that exists on this fuckin earth. Just leave me here to rot, hunter."_

Then for the first time in her life, Lettuce felt so much frustration that she ran to the bed and turned him over so that he was looking up at her and she was hovering over him when she was on the bed. Lettuce told me that he was surprised to see her over him, especially with such frustrated, angry eyes. Her arms were supporting her up on the bed and his body was in between her legs so that she could be in a good position to look down at him. He only laid there, staring at her in disbelief and she was looking down at him with tears of frustration starting to escape his eyes.

"_Don't you get it, you butthole?!"_ she asked, literally screaming at him. _"I'm trying to save you because I'm not like the hunters you've met! You think I like being a hunter?! I hate it!! I absolutely hate it because I have to kill living creatures that share the same planet as I! Well you vampires are not really living but you get my point! But despite how much I hate this life, I live in it! I tried to make the most of it! I pray every night before and after I go hunting to cleanse my soul. Rather killing a vampire is different from killing a human, I don't see the difference! Killing is killing and I hate being the one to end the lives of so many vampires!!"_

All at once, her feelings, the ones that she kept hidden from her parents for so many years, came springing out of her as if she was saying the same thing over and over again. The vampire only stared at her, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly open in shock.

Then Lettuce used one hand to go to her skirt and she lifted it up to her underwear. She took out a knife and the vampire tensed up a bit when he saw it. But instead of using it on him, Lettuce used it on herself. She went to her shoulder and she made a cut, a cut deep enough for her to bleed. It hurt. She dropped her knife and she was wincing in pain this time. She told him, _"Now you are going to have to make a choice. Either drink my blood and live or don't and we'll both die in this motel room. It's your choice."_ She didn't look at him to see his reaction. She was too much in pain as her life blood was slipping away from the cut in her shoulder.

Then he made his choice.

The vampire lifted himself up and his lips were over her wound. He started sucking on her blood and the feeling of him devouring her blood was something that Lettuce never felt before. His arms rise up and grasp her body, holding her close to him. He became greedy as he continued to suck on her blood. There was pain and it was aching her body. Her arms became weak and she couldn't hold herself up anymore. She slowly collapsed on him and he still held her body to him. But apparently drinking blood from when you're the one lying on your back was not easily. Before Lettuce knew it, she was the only lying on her back and the vampire was over her. His nails soon dug into her back and he was sucking harder and harder on her. She was ready to faint. Feeling weaker and weaker by the second. She did try to push him away. Her hands pressing against his chest and she tried to push him away but he wouldn't move. It was like trying to lift a stone statue off you.

"_S-S-Stop!"_ she was finally able to say. _"You're killing…me."_ He didn't respond. She was being to think that she was going to die. He was waiting for the chance to suck on her blood and now that he has her, he's going to kill her.

Then he stopped. He tore himself from his neck and he roared. She said it was strange to even describe it but the way she saw it, it was incredible. It was like watching someone gain into power after nearly being close to death and he let out a roar of triumphant that he escaped death. Technically, that was what he did but to Lettuce, it was a sight to be amazed about.

Lettuce, despite her weakened eye sight, she saw his extended fangs and his eyes, his dark violet eyes that stared down at her. When those eyes were looking down at her, she felt like she was getting chills by just looking at him, but not 'scared out of your mind' chills. The good kind chills.

The vampire then raise his wrist to his mouth and he bit it so that blood would come oozing out. She was confused but she no longer had the strength to ask him what he was doing. She only watched as he hovered his bleeding wrist over her bleeding shoulder. When the drops of his blooded landed on her shoulder, she felt this burning sensation, but a comforting burning. It didn't hurt and she felt deep inside her that it was a good feeling. Especially when the pain in her shoulder slowly started to numb away. She saw that his bleeding wrist healed and he first licked the remaining blood off her shoulders. She suddenly felt like the feel of his tongue on her skin felt really nice. When he looked back at her, it was only for a moment but it made her heart pound. He then licked the excess blood on his wrist but he didn't swallow it. After he licked the blood off, he bend down to her and kissed her. She was surprised by the kiss but she was too tired to really care. What she did knew was that the kiss she shared with him was something she never experienced before. It felt so wonderful, so…perfect.

There was something else. She tasted the blood he licked off his wrist rolling down her throat. She also noticed that he did stop for a bit to use his fangs to bite his lip. More blood came oozing out and he kissed her again immediately before any blood dripped out of his mouth. He was passing her his blood and Lettuce remembers feeling stronger with every drop he gave her. She soon kissed him back, wanting more of his kiss. His wound long since healed and all she wanted was him as he wanted was her. It was like that one kiss he gave her awoken the passion within her and it was taking full control over her body now.

She was used to making out and making other vampires think that they're going to have sex with the human slut before they feed on her while it still has the virgin taste. But as she tried those techniques on the vampire, they felt completely different. Everything was new and it felt like her first time even starting it. His hands slide her clothes off her beautiful form and her hands removed every piece of clothing off of him. She thought his body was the most dangerous, beautiful thing she has ever saw in her life. His hands and his lips felt every part of her as hers felt every bit of him. When he entered her, she gasped and she was trying to handle it. But she couldn't. She was gasping, panting, and whimpering in the pain in between her legs. It was terrible and yet wonderful at the same time. It was pain she never felt as her backed arched up, pressing her breasts up against his chest. He held her and it appeared to her that he was trying to hold back for her sake.

But she cupped his face and made him look at her. She told him, _"Finish it."_

He was surprised by her braveness but he was going to obey, even though he can tell that she will be very, very sore. _"It'll be over soon, Lettuce."_

So he let go and thrust deep into her before she had the chance to acknowledge the fact that he called her by her name, finally breaking her virgin walls. She was too busy screaming. His lips immediately press against hers, trying to muffle her scream. He held her to sooth her and one of her hands had its fingers dug into his head, disappearing in his purple hair, as the other dug into his back. Then as time pass, her scream died down and things just felt easier. When he parted from her lips, she was gasping, calming down her pounding heart. When he pulled out of her, she thought that he was biting his lip at the time because it hurt and yet she felt no pain when he removed himself from her. Only the loss of his warmth in her. But then he went down lower to her and with his bleeding lips, he pushed himself into her entrance. Lettuce gasped when she felt his tongue in her. She also felt the pain that was once there begin to dull. He stopped moments later when the pain became more bearable. But by the time she was able to see him one more time, she passed out and fell asleep on that bed.

When Lettuce woken up, she woke up in the arms of the vampire she's been caring for and who she just made love with. He was stroking her hair as he held her close. She felt warm being near him and being under the covers she assumed he put over them helped out a lot.

He greeted, _"Hello, Lettuce. How are you feeling?"_

Lettuce took a moment to check herself and she answers, _"I'm less sore than I thought I would be."_

"_I take it you humans didn't know what our blood could do."_

She stared at him in wonder. He was actually having a conversation with her.

She told him that she has never heard about anything about their blood being used as a healing medicine. He explained that vampire's blood do miracles on the human body because it's far more advanced than a human's blood. Blood is the life, it was said long ago. Lettuce told me that she wanted to remain on that bed forever, talking to him because she felt safe with him. She felt like she could actually trust him, a vampire.

"_What is your name?"_ she asked him. _"You never told me."_

He answered, _"My name is Pai."_

Pai, a vampire who was turned nearly three years ago before he met her. In his human life, he was a member of the armed forces. He was in a group that was really unlucky. They were caught in an explosion and while everyone around him was dying, he was also dying and if he wasn't turned into a vampire, he would've been the last to die. He was such a coward back then, he told her. He was afraid of death and wanted to escape it. Even give his soul up to the devil to at least extend his life. He got his wish. He was turned when two vampires appeared before him – a father and a son he presumed because the little boy kept calling the older vampire father. The older vampire turned him as an escape from death, but it can only be offered to him if Pai wanted it. He did and the vampire offered it to him. Pai was able to remember his army life when he was in fights similar to it; when he holds a gun, when he hears an explosion, or hear the dying cries of those vampires around him. Lettuce sort of felt pity for him, having him to only remember such a painful experience of his human life.

After that, Lettuce still took care of him because he was still weak and when she left him pieces of raw meat, he sucked on it. He was getting his strength back and it made her a bit sad. Because it meant that he would soon return to the world outside the motel room and so would she. They would be enemies again and the awful part was that she had fallen in love with him. She doesn't think she could bare it if she was ordered to kill him. But on their last day together in that motel room, he asked her the one thing that made Lettuce happier than a mother holding her new born child.

"_Lettuce, even though once we leave this room, we have to be enemies. However, there is one thing I must ask of you."_

"_Y-yes?"_

"_May I see you again?"_

Lettuce said that it was the happiest moment of her life. Possibly even happier than any man asking her to marry him. It actually did feel like a marriage proposal.

She answered, _"Yes, you may."_

And they did.

She would sneak away from her parents' house late at night at least once a week, with some daggers just in case of a different vampire meeting and when she saw him, they would first kiss and talk. They would talk for hours about different stuff and that was it. They didn't bed each other since that one time in the motel room. It was probably because they were just caught in the moment that first time. Now she started to respect herself and he in return, respected her. She felt so free when she was with him and she felt like she could be herself around him.

"_You know, you were right,"_ Pai told her.

She looked at him confused and asked, _"About what?"_

"_You are different from all of the hunters I have met."_ Then he kissed her cheek and she turned red.

Then it wasn't long till we met her. After her parents literally gave her to us, she asked if she could stay one more night with her family. We said yes, not knowing about her secret relationship with a vampire. She already saw Pai that week as well and that was why she wrote a letter. She told me that she cried so hard and some of the tears fell on that letter as she was writing it. She was worried that he wouldn't be able to read it. She left it in a secret place she hoped with all her heart that he would find it and she came back home. I was awake when she came back and I saw that she was crying. I thought it was because she had to leave her home but really, it was because she was going to leave the love of her life and she thought she would never see him again.

We all have our reasons to be vampire hunters and they all had a beginning. But I think that the real beginning for our current story started when we went on a mission to go to a club and investigate it for any signs of our most feared enemy, Deep Blue. Our master or boss, the Blue Knight, told my team and I about a club that vampires go to. A social gathering is what's it's called and the last time I've been to one, it was freakier than hell. This one was weirder than hell.

Techno music, I've noticed, has become quite popular for the vampires. Possibly it's because the rhythm of the music is faster than most music humans listen to and a lot more interesting. I find it annoying. The usual things I noticed were the painted black windows to hide out the sunlight, the drizzles above to soon rain blood on every blood-sucker in the club, and a bartender to serve blood bags and other refreshments to the vampire-wanna-be's or the food. This club was bigger and it had at least two stages for the vampires to groove on. While some vampires danced like they were having sex with their dance partner with clothes on, there were some that were at the tables socializing or opening their spine to make it look bumpy by putting metal balls under the skin. It's normal to see that, but when you see the muscles of the vampires and all of the guts inside, that was something I didn't want to see in a club. Other vampires were even giving each other piercings on their tongues, ears, etc, or tattoos on anywhere of their bodies, and I mean _everywhere_.

I believe it was the first time that all of us went together as a team, which means that Pudding was finally approved to go hunting with us and it was a few years after she joined us. While we were there, there were so many things that were exposed I felt like covering Pudding's eyes to block them from. But I wasn't going to baby her now that she was able to come out into the open.

We only came to this vampire night club because we finally found some leads on Deep Blue. Apparently thanks to his latest victim, Taruto, the leukemia was greatly weakening him. He was becoming sloppy and we found some clues of his whereabouts in the Tokyo area. Pudding thought that because of Taruto's infected blood, it was his last gift to her on helping her find him. We ended up finding night clubs all over the place and it would be so much easier to just use some of the UV bombs that Pudding invented to kill them all, but that would actually be a waste of ammo and effort. Besides, I'm not letting Deep Blue escape while he's weaken because I was too busy killing a bunch of small fry.

This nightclub became the place where everything I knew went upside down…and it was the place where I heard the words from the one person I thought I would never see again.

"I..I know your face."


	4. The Start of It All

Ch. 4: The Start of It All

The night club idea is fairly new. It certainly was a surprise to Ichigo and her team to find out that the vampires were even doing this. One would think that having a night club was a way for the vampires to at least fit into society. But they think that there is nothing human about a vampiric night club. Especially when there are humans with them who are willing to give up their mortality or their blood for these damnable creatures. The idea made nearly all of them sick to their stomachs because they could never understand why a human would give up everything for these monstrous creatures.

Ichigo reports to her team, "If one more cocky vampire decides to pinch my ass or I see one more human making out with a vampire, I am going to kill not only the vampire but the human also for being so fukin stupid!!" She reports by screaming to her communicator that's in her ear.

Being with her, Pudding is standing besides Ichigo and she's staring up at her superior. Ichigo is serious pissed off right about now.

Watching from above on the second floor while leaning over the rail, Mint answers with the same kind of communicator, "Stop whining, Ichigo. I have a better view than you and I don't like it anymore than you do."

As Ichigo and Pudding are at the back of the club, Masaya is across from them and he's sitting on the stage at the corner so that his back has support and he's out of the way from the dancers above him and below him. He sits there while also taking a smoke. He tells them both, "Don't forget, Ms. Ichigo. We're here for information. Let's try and not get into any trouble so that we can be invited to another club party."

Now Ichigo is even more sick than she was before. "If you enjoy these parties so much, then go ahead and drop your gun and feed a female vamp. Just don't make out in front of me or my gun might slip."

Masaya lets out another puff of smoke and says, "At least it's your gun and not your sword. I could enjoy the last few seconds of my life instead the last few minutes."

Then Zakuro, at the rail on the opposite side of Mint and is also looking down to observe her comrades, reports to interrupting their conversation, "Lettuce got a target."

Ichigo asks, "Where?"

"About a few yards in front of you," she answers.

Ichigo turns around and says, "I don't wanna look. I don't wanna kill Lettuce by accident." But while Ichigo is looking away, Pudding is trying to look past her and she sees Lettuce holding a vampire's head to her neck as he kisses her tenderly and seductive. She looks like she's enjoying it but she can tell that Lettuce is only pretending or she's been told.

"I wonder if Lettuce onee-chan enjoys doing this, na no da," Pudding mumbles, causing everyone to hear her words. They listen as she continues to say, "I don't know, na no da. Maybe it's because of the Japanese side of me, na no da. But I learned to treasure your first kiss and your virginity, na no da."

"Well Pudding," Mint starts, getting her attention, "I don't know about the first kiss part but Lettuce definitely protects her virginity. Why do you think so many vampires are attracted to her and her virgin blood?"

Hearing this, Ichigo's eyes widen and her lips formed a solid, straight line. Pudding lets out a sigh and answers, "I guess you're right, na no da."

From what Zakuro could see, she sees Lettuce talking to the vampire this time and he looks incredibly hungry. Still she grabs his hand and pulls him away from the club madness and to the exit. She reports, "She's already leading him out."

Masaya, starting to see a familiar shade of lime green hair walking through the crowd, tries to look over some heads that are in the way and he sees Lettuce pushing the exit door open and she leads the vampire out with her. Masaya reports, "She has just left the building and in about three minutes, the vampire will be dead and she would have our information for us."

Pudding looks at Ichigo and asks, "Three minutes, na no da?"

Ichigo explains, "She needs to make him think that she really is a human whore and then she'll go in for the kill after she gets the information she needs. It's usually three minutes, but she'll take two if the guy knows nothing or she'll take five minutes because he fought back or he has a lot to say. It still won't be long."

As she was explaining this to the hunter underling, a male vampire walks by with a female vampire by his side. But when he sees Ichigo, he took the chance to pinch her butt as he was walking by. He laughs and so did his vampire mate. Ichigo stiffens from the touch and then the fiery flames of anger and rage begin to burn to the surface.

Seeing this, Mint tells her, "Calm down, Ichigo. Just wait a few more minutes before you kill something."

Ichigo has at least five veins pulsing on her head as she tells her companion, "If your ass wasn't just pinched by some filthy, god damn, motherfucker, you wouldn't be calm!"

Masaya sucks on his cigarette before saying, allowing the cigarette smoke to come out while he's talking, "Think of it this way, Ms. Ichigo. You were grown very well developed."

Now Ichigo is definitely annoyed. "Masaya, you may be a nice guy and a gentleman at times, but save your flattery till after we're done working. I don't flirt on the job." Masaya just smiles in amusement before enjoying his cigarette a little longer.

As the three minute deadline was drawing near, Masaya smashes his cigarette on the stage and Lettuce comes rushing back in the club, a bit anxious to be normal. Seeing this, Masaya asks, "Ms. Lettuce, what's going on?" Hearing his question, the girls listen in as well while Zakuro and Mint look at her to see her anxiety as well.

"Everyone! I'm sorry but I messed up!" she quickly tells them, her voice filled with traces of panic.

Surprised to hear this, Mint asks, "What do you mean 'messed up'? Aren't you an expert on seducing vampires?!"

Lettuce quickly says, "I'm sorry! But someone saw me kill him! I tried to catch up with him but he was already gone. It was a child."

"A child, na no da?" Pudding asks, surprised to hear this new piece of fact. "You mean children are cursed as well, na no da?"

Ichigo corrects, "What Lettuce means by child is someone who is fairly new to the vampire world, right?"

"He is new," Lettuce answers. "But he was also a child. He ran away. I'm sorry."

Hearing this, some of the hunters couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed and angry that Lettuce let this happen. But there's nothing they can do about it now. "It's alright," Ichigo tells her after letting out a sigh to surpass her anger. "Besides," she takes out her gun from her hips and she aims it at the nearest vampire's head, "I've been wanting to do this since someone just pinched my ass." After that, she instantly pulls the trigger and the head of the vampire explodes into millions of pieces before his body begins to turns to dust.

After that one gunshot, the other hunters took their weapons out and they start attacking the vampires left and right before anyone had a chance to realize what the heck is going on. Mint takes out an arrow and first aims her arrow at the vampires on the rail with her. She launches it and every vampire it passes turns to dust instantly. Her arrows contain dust made of silver and as if flies through the air, it unleashes a lot of silver dust. A new toy that her boyfriend had given to her. Zakuro turns to her rail full of vampires and she takes out her silver whip. She raises it up and then swings it down. Because of the sharp needles injected with garlic extract, one simple cut causes the vampire to scream and collapse as the garlic acts like acid on their skin before causing them to explode. Masaya grasps his sword and swiftly pulls it out of his sheath so that he could cut and stab a few neighboring vampires before they got the chance to see him. One second later and six vampires are dead. Pudding goes to her pocket and takes out a small bomb. She pulls the metal ring off and tosses it ever so silently to a couple of vampires. Moments later, the bomb explodes and a puff of garlic gas spreads to about a five yard radius. Every vampire that took a whiff of the garlic shrivels up and dies as if they were just receiving poison. Ichigo takes out another gun and starts shooting at any vampire that moves.

Finally after they attack and killed a few, the vampires and the humans begin to move out of there. Some of them begin to run to the exit so that they can see the light of another moon while others stay and fight; all of them being vampires.

When some of the vampires see that Lettuce isn't moving, a few decide to attack her. But because they decide to attack her, she has five daggers in her hand and she instantly throws them at five of the attacking vampires. As their bodies burn to the ground from the silver metal, there are thin, invisible wire connected to the dagger handles and her fingers. She pulls them back and grasps the wire to use it almost like a whip to every vampire that decided she was the weakest of them all, which makes her an easy target. She's not. As more vampires stay and fight, thinking that they're only humans, the hunters continue to kill one after another.

Mint decides to use different arrows and she shoots at the vampires on the rail. Not a single arrow misses their mark and the moment they did, the vampires explode from the injection of the silver nitrate that quickly spreads through their bodies.

As the vampires approach Zakuro from both forward and behind, she jumps off the rail and shoots her whip at the end of the rail on the other side and she swings herself back up, only to have the vampires only in front of her and she swings the whip at them again.

Four vampires jump up in the air and charge at Masaya with fangs baring, ready for the kill. But Masaya uses swift movements to swing his sword left and right. In three seconds he was done and he's on his knees with his sword at the side. Above him, the four vampires turn to hundreds of different pieces and they fall down on the ground like rain before turning to dust. Masaya stands up and he hears moving coming at him from behind. He turns around and slices on vampire in half while another vampire grabs his sword. Masaya pulls the sword back and it slices the vampire's hands, causing his hands to first turn to dust and then the rest of his body.

The vampire is on his knees before her and Ichigo points her gun right at the head. As soon as she pulls the trigger, the head explodes clean off and the body fades away to dust as it falls back. As the body burns up, that's the last of it. The only ones alive, or at least moving, in the club room are the hunters. Ichigo drops her gun to her side and pants, her chest rising up and down with each inhale and each exhale. Everyone else is basically the same.

Then Ichigo straightens herself up and commands, "Report."

Masaya answers, "They didn't know what was coming."

"I'm fine, na no da!" Pudding answer.

Mint answers, "Still breathing."

Lettuce answers, "We can still see the light of another day."

But then Zakuro reports, "Something's here."

At first the team was confused when they hear this, but then they all started to see something at the corner of their eyes. Not at the same place, but multiple places. Mint thought she saw something coming from the rail besides her but when she looked, there's nothing. Masaya saw something on the wall on his left, the opposite of Mint and the results are the same for him. Lettuce could have sworn that she saw something at the exit door she went through when she acting, and Pudding thought she saw a black shadow move at the entrance door, across from the exit door. Now this was starting to freak them out. But when Ichigo suddenly feels something behind her, she looks and she sees a vampire right in front of her. She's startled from his sudden appearance and when her team sees her move, they look and they see the vampire as well.

Unlike the vampires they were just fighting against, the ones who were wearing fashionable clothes that are seen on humans, the vampire in front of her is wearing a skin tight black suit as if he were a scuba diver or something – just without the oxygen bottles on the back, the gargles, the breathing mask, and the slippers. He's wearing the black mask as well but what separates this mask from those worn for scuba diving, this mask covers his whole entire head; covering hair, ears, and all. No one could see this vampire's facial features or anything. The only thing, however any of them were able to tell that this thing in front of Ichigo is a vampire is the fact that the only thing his mask does reveal is his mouth – his mouth and his fangs.

The moment Ichigo faces him, he tries to hit her. He swings his arm her and she ducks right in time before kicking him right in the cut with one leg like a donkey. He goes flying to a wall and crashes. She didn't give him time to hit the ground. She drops the empty bullet cases and clicks her gun to her leg where she has many more bullets for her to reload her gun with. As soon as she hears the click, she aims and shots him. As his ashes fall to the ground, more masked vampires come crawling out of the darkness on walls and roofs like giant black bugs. They came in like flies being intoxicated with the scent of rotten meat.

Seeing this giant group of vampires approaching them, the hunters think it's best to not be separated. Mint and Zakuro jump over the rail and they do a few flips before landing on the ground without a scratch. As soon as they land, the two of them, along with the rest of the team, runs to Ichigo's side and they all form a circle with their backs to each other and their weapons towards the incoming vampires. Now they are all surrounded with possibly hundreds or thousands of vampires, about the same amount of vampires that were in the club partying or more. Since they know that they surround this group of hunters, they begin to slow a bit, taunting these hunters and trying to scare them with their extended fangs and their hungry hisses. The group tightens together and they vampires come closer and closer.

"Pudding," Ichigo calls. "Have anything?"

Pudding puts on a smug smirk and her hand secretly goes to her pocket. "Way ahead of you, na no da."

A second later, something clicks and moments later, a big bright light shines from behind the hunters and engulfs everyone and everything in that room. The light didn't feel pain from the hunters, except for their eyes being blinded, but they can hear the agonizing screams of the vampires. They can tell that the vampires are possibly all burning to death from the light. When it finally clears, the hunters open their eyes. It took them a while for their eye sight to come back and for them to overcome the black spots in their vision but when they could look, they see piles of dust on the ground, the tables, and some on the wall – wherever the vampires were.

Feeling rather triumphant, Pudding brushes her hands together and says, "Nothing to it, na no da." Her teammates smile at her success as well and allow the moment of glory to go to her. For a first time in the field, she did a pretty good damn job.

"Very interesting."

That was neither of them.

The hunters all look up, to where they heard the voice come from and they see three more vampires standing on the fancy light machines like the graceful things they are. But there's a different between these three vampires and the ones that were just here. What makes them different from those vampires are that their outfits are a little different than the pure black ones. They have a little bit extra. There's a teenager size vampire who has a bright orange ring on each wrist, his torso, his ankles, and his neck. The second vampire appears to be in his late teens and he has one neon green ring on his outfit. The ring is on his head, possibly over his eyes like a neon green blindfold. The rest of his outfit is pure black. Then finally, there is the adult looking vampire, possibly in his late twenties. His black suite has a single bright purple slash starting from his left shoulder to his right hip. Judging from their difference in the pure black outfits the vampires before had, they must be the leaders of that whole vampire bug pack. Besides the outfits, everyone below can see the weapons they also carry – well two of them have weapons. The one with the neon orange rings doesn't. The one with the purple slash as a fuckin huge hammer in his hands. If any of the hunters could see the hammer up close, then they can see that the hammer is made from rock and metal. It looks like the kind of hammer you would expect to see on a medieval metal suit soldier. The one with the green ring has Sais in his hands while his arms are crossed in front of his chest. Those Sais shined like the north stare in the sky. Just looking at the metal made some of the hunters' eyes hurt.

The one with the neon green ring on his head, he grins and he says, "You six are not just any hunters, are you?"


	5. Pudding’s Surprise

Ch. 5: Pudding's Surprise

_The one with the neon green ring on his head, he grins and he says, "You six are not just any hunters, are you?"_

_XxX_

Now being irritated after hearing that and with the fact that there is still some work needed to be done, Ichigo asks, "Oh you noticed, suckhead?"

"Ouch. That hurt," he whines, a whine easily identified as fake. He raises the Sais to his head and he points the tip of it in his mouth as if his weapon is a tooth pick. "Let's get rid of those explosives, shall we?"

Before anyone below knew it, the one with the orange rings disappears – as if he was just commanded. The vampire hunters instantly felt him right behind them when he reappeared. This one is faster than the others because he hits them all, except Pudding, and they all went flying through the air before crashing into the walls. He's strong too. By the time Pudding turns around after her teammates hit the wall, the orange ring vampire quickly grabs her belt and pulls her explosives away from her. She didn't have time to stop him as she sees him holding the belt in his hands before throwing it up to his comrades up in the ceiling.

Those that were hit, Ichigo, Masaya, Lettuce, Mint, and Zakuro, push themselves up from the ground after hitting the wall with their backs at thirty miles per hour. They see that orange rings didn't hit Pudding and that he threw her belt of bombs up in the air for the purple slash one to catch. Then orange rings faces Pudding and she glares at him for doing that.

The purple slash vampire presents the belt of bombs to not only himself but also to the one green ring one. Green ring whistles in astonishment. "Let me guess! UV bombs, bombs that shoot out silver nitrate darts, and garlic gas. Very nice. Who made them?"

Pudding didn't answer him. She just instantly attacks orange rings with her high dragon kick when he least expects it. But the surprising part is that he was able to block it with tiger paws. She is surprised as well as the others who are watching and know Pudding's mastery in her martial arts. But Pudding doesn't let it get to her. She continues to fight orange rings and he continues to block her. The first impression is that he used to be a talented martial artist when he was a human and with his new vampire abilities, he's deadly. But it looks like he's still just a kid. Yet again, Pudding is a kid too and she's a martial arts master. At least, she's able to keep up with him. She attacks and he dodges. He attacks, she dodges. They are completely engrossed in their own battle, so were those who were watching. Which gave Ichigo the chance to use this chance to get her gun and shoot at the two vampires above.

But apparently, they were expecting that. They instantly lean back and fell off the lights they were once standing on. They land gracefully on the ground with ease and the hunters, this time, are not distracted with Pudding and orange rings' fight. They got up and charge at the two vampires – Ichigo goes to her side and she grasps the handle of her silver sword. The ones who goes after green ring are both Masaya and Ichigo with their swords in hand and Zakuro, Lettuce, and Mint go after purple slash with their usual weapons. Purple slash appears to be strong with that giant hammer of his and green ring might be pretty fast with his slim looking figure. Ichigo and Masaya can handle him alone just fine. It's purple slash that might need some extra help taking down.

To their assumptions, the green ring is very talented with his Sais. It's literally taking the both Ichigo and Masaya to even keep him entertained. Or that's what Ichigo assumes because he was smirking the whole time. It was also literally taking the other three hunters to take care of purple slash. He is strong and he's very quick, as if the hammer he's using only weighs to that of a feather. He doesn't smirk or even speak. He was calm and cool – the best attitude to have when you're fighting someone. He's not allowing his emotions to get the better of him, if he even has any emotions.

Pudding tries to do a high kick and orange rings instantly grasps it. Not good. But Pudding quickly uses her other leg to lift herself up and she uses her other foot to kick his face. He lets go of her leg and she lands on the ground with ease while he stumbles and touches his cheek in surprise. He looks back at her and she gets into a fighting stance; standing on leg, arching her back, one hand sticking out at arm's length, and her other close to her body. She's ready for him and, from what she could see, he growls and grits his teeth together, as if insulted. He charges at her and tries to punch her. She is a bit surprise by his anger but she blocks it and she attacks. He blocks and similar to how it was before but now Pudding has to go faster or she's done for since this vampire is now pissed off.

As Ichigo and Masaya were trying to slice at green ring at any way they could, he decides to try and cut Ichigo in half. Of course, she steps back as a normal reaction to get away and Masaya takes that chance to try and slice him again. Didn't work. Green ring ducks right when the sword was going to slice him in half and then does a high kick before Masaya got the chance to even acknowledge that the vampire dodged. Green ring sends him flying through the air and towards the wall. Ichigo allows her eyes to follow him and she hears him screaming the moment he hit the wall.

"Masaya!" she calls, but her only answer is a wince of agonizing pain from him after he lands on the ground.

"From the sound of it," she hears green ring say, "I think I cracked about three or four ribs and I believe I made him bleed." Now upset, Ichigo quickly turns around and does a high kick in the process. Green ring ducks by doing a back flip. "And I must say, I am quite hungry. If you hurt me too much, I don't think I can control myself. I need blood to heal, sweetheart." Hearing this made Ichigo's stomach turn in disgust and for her blood to boil in rage.

"Fuck you," she tells him, before charging him again and swinging her sword left and right. Now he appears even more entertained now that he's only fighting her and it appears that she's stronger than how she was before when it was her strength combined with Masaya's.

Mint jumps high up in the air and she aims her bow and arrow at purple slash. She lets go of her arrow and it flies straight for him at 300 miles per hour. But at the last minute, he moves to the side and the arrow hits the ground. But it starts beeping until it creates the long beep. Purple slash jumps to the side right before it explodes, landing on the wall as the explosion becomes a big bright light. He then felt some pain on his mouth and quickly looks away so that the UV rays doesn't burn his mouth off. From how it looks, that suit is more than just something to wear for the rest of his body isn't burning up. Zakuro took that time to send her whip at him. When the UV rays finally died down, he looks back up and he sees the whip coming for him. He lets go of the wall and falls down as that whip hits the wall, creating a rather deep crack. He lands on the ground with easy, his hammer still in hand. When he stood up, he didn't face Mint or Zakuro. He turns his head to Lettuce who is just standing where she is. She notices and she readies herself and her daggers in case he attacks. But he doesn't move. He only stares at her, or at least she thinks that's what he's doing because he's not doing anything with his mouth as she see that the burn marks he got from the small exposure to the light is fading away.

Mint yells, "What are you doing just standing there?! Finish him!!"

Purple slash doesn't move and neither does Lettuce. She's waiting for him to attack.

When he does move, it's towards Mint and Zakuro. He raises his hammer and swings it down. He cracks the ground and the cracks head for both of them. They jump up to avoid them but then they feel the vampire's presence behind them. Before they could react, purple slash kicks both of them and they both go crashing to the ground, breaking a few tables and a few chairs in the process. While purple slash is in the air, he hears something coming for him. He looks to the side and he sees Lettuce's daggers coming for him. He raises his hammer and blocks them. Lettuce pulls her wires back and the daggers returns to her hand since she missed. The vampire lands on the ground and stares at her as she looks upset.

"Now I have a reason to kill you," she says. The vampire still only looks at her as she starts running to him, with silver daggers to turn him to ash the moment he gets cut.

He still only stands there, as if waiting for something. And he was. He was just waiting for Lettuce to be stepping over the cracks he created earlier. When she did, he raises his hammer up high in the air again and slams it into the ground. When Lettuce sees his hammer hitting the ground, she stops running and the ground under her falls.

_Rumble_

"AAAHHH!!" Lettuce screams as she falls in.

Mint and Zakuro, who are already sitting up after crashing, see her falling along with the rest of the floor.

"Lettuce!!" Mint calls, screaming actually.

Ichigo, who was in a blocking position with green ring's Sais being blocked by her sword over her head, looks and sees Lettuce gone and a hole in the ground. She pushes green ring back and stares at the hole, possibly forgetting she's fighting. But she only stands there, staring in surprise and disbelief. Being curious, green ring looks over his shoulder at the hole and he sees his comrade standing by the hole.

He stares at him curiously and mumbles, "What the hell is he doing?"

Hearing all the commotion, Pudding and her vampire opponent stop fighting as well and look at the hole and at purple slash who is still staring down at the hole. He's gonna jump and to the hunter's worst fear, he's going to feed on Lettuce's blood.

"Lettuce onee-chan!!" Pudding screams, as purple slash then jumps down the hole. Hearing her, orange rings turns his attention away from the hole to Pudding and her disbelief, shock face. There was silence for a little bit before her expression becomes full of hate and anger. She turns to the other vampires and screams, "You damn bastards, na no da!! I won't ever forgive you, na no da!!"

"Pudding?"

When she heard her name being called, her eyes widen for a moment and everything just disappeared like they no longer had a meaning. For the lips that called out Pudding's name wasn't any of her friends, it was from the orange ring vampire who is now facing her with surprised, slightly opened lips. Even her comrades and green ring still didn't move as now this is another unexpected moment. Pudding stares at the vampire before her as he quickly goes to his mask. He goes to the opening around his mouth and pulls the mask off his head, revealing what his face really looks like which causes Pudding to nearly forget how to breathe.

The vampire before her has, the first thing she notices, is orange hair. Not the bright orange he has on his fighting suit, but more like a red orange color and it's darker, almost close to being brown. It's short but somehow he was able to hide two puffy ponytails he has under his black mask. Like common vampires, he has pale white skin, the sharp fangs, and the demon like eyes. The color of his eyes is a dark gold color, a color Pudding remembers so well. From his features, he's possibly the same age as Pudding or older. From height wise, he's possibly the same height as Pudding or maybe a half an inch or an inch shorter than her. He's a bit muscular for his age, only because of his Kung Fu skills that about everyone has seen so far. But no matter how tall he is or how big his muscles is, there is no denying the fact that Pudding knows his face from long ago.

Unlike Pudding, the vampire before her has his lips curled up into a smile. "Pudding! Oh my god! It's you." He even goes up to her, now excited to see her while his hands grasp her arms to feel that she's really here. The hunters and the vampire now stare in surprise as they have the feeling of what's going on.

Pudding is still shock but she's able to ask, "Taru-Taru?"

The vampire, or as he is now revealed to be Taruto, nods. "Yep." He pulls her into a hug and he holds her close and gently so he doesn't crush her despite his joy of see her. He breathes out, "I should have known that it was you from your fighting skills and your bombs but I wasn't so sure. At least, you're the only person I know who still says that annoying phase at the end of every sentence."

Pudding's eyes widen even more and now her comrades are looking at her with a bit of pity. Her friend, who she thought to be dead for so many years, who she has loved even after death, who she has been training and killing vampires for is standing before her as a vampire himself. Deep Blue turned Taruto into a vampire that day she saw him feeding on him.

Pudding says, "Get your fuckin hands off me, na no da."

Hearing that, Taruto gasps in surprise, his smile long gone. Using the chance she has, Pudding pushes him away and then does a double kick, using both of her legs to hit him away from her as far as she could. He goes flying and crashes into a few tables while sliding on the floor.

"Taruto!" Ichigo hears the green ring vampire call in worry with a tone that's barely a whisper. She sees opportunity.

Taruto pushes himself off the ground in pain from Pudding's kicks and he looks up at her in confusion while she looks angry and she's panting with her shoulders rising up and down and her fists in tight balls. "If you touch me again, I'll kill you, you vampire na no da!!" His eyes are wide in complete shock and confusion.

Ichigo raises her sword and tries to stab the green ring vampire. He saw it just in time and dodges her attack by ducking and doing another back flip. Actually he does several so that he's yards away from her and is right next to the hole purple slash created. He faces Taruto and yells, "We're leaving, Taruto!! Let's get Pai and get out of here!" When Ichigo hears that second name, she's surprise. Green ring then jumps down the hole and Taruto pushes himself up. He continues to stare at Pudding for a moment longer and she's glaring at him. Then she goes to her pocket and takes out what appears to be tiny bombs with claspers. He didn't expect that.

"You're not going anywhere, na no da!!" she screams, throwing one at them. Quickly he runs away from that area as the bomb lands and explodes. Taruto had an instant smell of that bomb and his whole body tenses at it; garlic. Still the amount he took in is not life threatening. He jumps up to the wall and crawls on it like a monkey in a tree. Pudding sends another one and it lands in front of him. He had to let go of the wall and fall to the ground before it exploded in front of him. As he runs to the hole, she keeps throwing bombs at him and he keeps dodging them, trying not to breathe in the process. When Pudding throws her last bomb, Taruto jumps into the hole and the bomb explodes on the surface behind him. When he was gone, Pudding growls in frustration. "Damn it, na no da!"

Then she sees a flash of red hair run right pass her. When she was able to look up, all she sees is Ichigo running to the hole and also jumping in. She calls, "Ichigo onee-chan!!"

She hears Mint grumble, "Geeze, that girl!" Mint and Zakuro lift themselves up and Mint is holding her shoulder in pain. "One day she's going to get us all killed with her solo vampire killing behavior." Mint rubs her shoulder a bit before grasping it and then thrusting it down.

_Crack_

"Ah!" she cries in pain. She opens and closes her hand until the pain begins to die down. Apparently, she had a dislocation. After rubbing it a few times more, she looks up at where Masaya should be and she sees him sitting against the wall, resting while holding his side. "You okay, Masaya?!"

"Yeah!" he answers, waving with a smile on his face. "You girls go after her. I'll wait here. What else can I do?"

That is true. If green ring's assumption of his ribs being cracked and him bleeding, he won't do much but hold them back and give their location away.

Mint also asks, "So you expect us to just leave you here? More vampires might come!"

Masaya goes to his hip and he takes out a gun. "That's why I always carry one of these and a few grenades Ms. Pudding gave me." Well that settles it.

Zakuro hears Mint say, "He carries a gun but he uses the god damn sword." Then she turns to the others who can still move. "Let's go!" She runs to the hole without an answer. Zakuro follows her and Pudding decides to join them. They all run to the hole and jump in. When they were gone, Masaya stares at the hole a few minutes before going to his pocket.

"Well now," he says, taking out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. He puts a cigarette in his mouth and lights it. Then he sucks it in and breathes out the smoke. "Guess I just wait here for all of them to return then." Then he takes another suck of his smoke and enjoys the moment of rest he has now been given.


	6. Lettuce’s Reunion

Ch. 6: Lettuce's Reunion

"_Well now," he says, taking out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. He puts a cigarette in his mouth and lights it. Then he sucks it in and breathes out the smoke. "Guess I just wait here for all of them to return then." Then he takes another suck of his smoke and enjoys the moment of rest he has now been given._

_XxX_

When Lettuce fell into the hole, she thought she was going to be buried alive. Rocks were falling with her and she hit the ground first. Yes it hurt, but it didn't hurt as much if any of the rocks fell on top of her. She was just in a lot of pain from the fall. The good thing was that she was still conscious for the moment. When things calmed down a bit, she looked back up and she saw the purple slash vampire at the edge of the hole, possibly looking down at her.

No, not 'possibly'. He was looking at her. She felt his gaze on her and it made her move.

Lettuce got up as quickly as she could, despite the times she stumbled a bit and the immediate pains she recieved. But she knows that those pains will be nothing if that vampire gets his hands on her. So she got up and ran. Because she ran, it caused purple slash to jump in and follow after her. Since she didn't go too awfully far, he was able to follow her immediately. His comrades and her friends, not so much.

What Lettuce noticed as she was running was that she's running in a place that looks like it has thousand and thousand of tunnels, almost like a sewer but without the strong stench of the river of rotten food, shit, and possibly many more things that people don't even want to know what's in it. There aren't even any signs of that water flowing in these tunnels. It was kind of dark but Lettuce could see thanks to some very small lights. She also saw holes in the tunnel walls and ladders that she assumes lead to the human surface world. She didn't take any of the ladders, in fear that she doesn't have enough time to climb up and save herself. She took any left and right that she could, hoping to avoid her pursuer, but she can feel him. She can feel him still following her. There's no avoiding him, so why bother?

Lettuce then stops running after running out of a tunnel and is now standing in the middle of a space that's a cylinder and is surrounded by so many tunnels. She came across spaces like these and she only had a second to decide where to go.

She can feel him, still moving. She felt him behind on her left and she looked. Nothing. She felt him at her right, she looks and he's still not there. After a few more times, she became almost dizzy moving around in circles. Then, she just stopped turning and she stood perfectly still. She still feels him moving but he's not making a move to her. She stood there, panting from the run and the constant moving. He'll eventually stop and before then, she's going to rest. If he is going to kill her, then she needs all the strength she can use.

Then he stopped but she couldn't feel him.

His disappearance startled her and she just stood there, perfectly still holding her breath.

_Clang_

Hearing that, Lettuce sharply turns around and launches her daggers at purple slash. He leans his head back to dodge them and he grasps the wire. Quickly, he pulls and Lettuce felt the other end of the wire escape her grip. She stands there, almost insulted as purple slash drops her weapon. She has more daggers with her but obviously this vampire is fast and she might not be able to hit him if she shot them. Although at the moment he's holding the handle of the hammer as the other end if being dragged on the floor. She still goes to her hip and she takes out a gun. She points it at him, daring him to make a move to her.

Seeing this, the purple slash vampire finally asks, "Would you shoot me, right now?"

What Lettuce noticed is that there is something about his voice that almost sounds…familiar. Like she knew his voice from a long time ago but at the moment between life and death, she can't think about it now. He might kill her at the moment of her lost of concentration if she tries to think about it.

She answers, as strong as she tries it to be, "Not unless you make me."

"You really are different from the other hunters, aren't you?"

Again, his voice is taunting her now. The longer she hears him, the more familiar his voice becomes. She still tries not to think about it.

"Who said I was?" she asks.

Then he tells her, "I only met one person who was just like you." That was when she lost her nerve and she stares at the vampire, lowering her gun only about an inch. He saw that and he quickly reacts while he still has the chance.

In one split second, much to Lettuce's surprise, the vampire drops his hammer and he disappears. She didn't expect that, nor did she expect him to grab her wrists from behind. Because of his grip, she drops her gun and to keep her from trying to reach for her daggers, he wraps his arms around her, causing her arms to do the same. Then she feels his lips pressing against the skin on the back of her neck. She feels chills running up and down her spin, releasing pulses of pleasure through her body and she liked it.

She hears him ask, "Did you really leave because of what you said in the letter?"

There was no way! There was no possible way!

That was what her mind kept screaming to her, or at least part of her brain. The other part agreed with her heart; she wants to believe.

"Get off me!" she screams, trying to push him away but he's too strong and she feels a bit…weak, like she can't push him away because she doesn't have the will to push him away. She whimpers, "You're not…It can't be…"

He still holds her and he also breathes in her sweet fragrance from her hair. She hears him exhaling in pleasure as if he hadn't had blood for days and he was able to taste the sweetest of them all. Then he tells her, "I've missed you so much, Lettuce."

That did it. That finally did it.

Her struggles became weak and it felt like her heart is aching. It's suffering because it's so full of joy. Tears are rising up to her eyes and her whole body feels so weak. If it weren't for the one holding and supporting her, she would probably be falling.

Her struggle stops completely and there was silence for a bit. She whimpers a bit and she tries to turn around to face him. Her wrists slip from his grip but he still holds her. She doesn't look up at him, just yet. Her hands are on his shoulders his chin is right in front to her forehead. She tries to breathe to calm herself before asking, "P..Pai?" Then she looks up at his face with slightly pleading yet disbelieving eyes.

This whole time he's been wearing that black mask. It was no wonder that she didn't recognize him. Slowly and hesitant but surely, she raises her hands. A part of her, a really big part of her, wanted to believe that it really is him under his mask but there is still the possibility that it might be a trick. Her hands go to the opening where his mouth is revealed and she slides them under the opening and slowly lifts it up. He doesn't make any moves against her. He stays perfectly still as her eyes widen larger than her big round glasses and a long, slow gasp escapes her lips. The mask falls to the ground when Lettuce removed it and it reveals the vampire who she saved so many years ago and the one who stole her heart and her virginity.

Before her, she sees the face of a vampire looking as if he were in his mid or late twenties. A face that reveals adulthood, all roundness of a boy is gone. His chin appears strong and set. Against his pale white skin, his dark grayish purple hair compliments it. He does have a weird hair style though. His hair is short except for the strands in front of his left ear. They're long enough to touch his shoulders, those strong, masculine shoulders. His long strands are wrapped in a dark green bandage. As for his eyes, the eyes that Lettuce fell in love with so many years ago are a dark purple color – a purple that revealed unspoken emotions only she is able to read. Every feature, every aspect about him is exactly as how Lettuce remembers. He even looked this old when they were together so many years ago. It was like the only proof Lettuce had that they were apart for so long is the fact that she got older.

"Oh my god," she breathes out, still unable to believe it. Her hands go to her mouth to cover it in shock and he still only stares down at her. Her hands move away and he hesitantly leans closer to her. Her finger tips already gently brush his cheek as he leans closer. "Pai, my love." Then he smashes his lips to hers, unable to control it. She, in return, closes her eyes and kisses him back; feeling the burning passion, long been asleep, explode through her whole body. Everything around them just disappeared and everything that happened so far never existed. All that did was this kiss – this wonderful, passionate, loving kiss. It's been so long for either of them to share this perfect kiss.

But then that kiss turns to another and another. They really, really missed each other. His lips began to trail off from her lips to her cheek and then her ear. Each kiss he gave made Lettuce moan out in pure pleasure. Then he whispers, "Have you've missed me as much as I missed you?"

"Very," she answers. He pulls back and kisses her again and she returns it. Then her hands cup his face when they stop and she tells him, "There was never a day you were out of my mind. I am so sorry I couldn't tell you in person, but I didn't know where you really were and I was afraid that you'd get the wrong impression if I didn't show up like I always did so I wrote that letter and I…"

She could have said more but she's already close to tears and Pai leans his forehead against hers and he makes soothing sounds. "Shhhh, shh, shh. I know. I just wasn't sure if what you wrote was true. I could smell the tears with the ink but a part of me, the stubborn part, started to believe that it was all a fake. I had to go on a massacre to calm myself."

Lettuce nods in understanding. "I heard. My parent told me that we left too soon. I thought so too. If I had stayed and told you in person, it would have made things easier."

"Rather it was by a letter or the words spoken out of your mouth, no other way would have been easier. The pain would still be the same."

They kiss again, deeper than the first one – his arms wrapped around her and holding her tight as her arms do the same. One of her hands digs her nails in his shoulder as the other gets lost in his hair. One of his arms wraps around her waist and the other is lost in her lime green hair.

Then Pai heard something. He hears rushing footsteps and they're coming for their direction fast.

Pudding whispers to the group, with Ichigo as well, "We can't find Lettuce onee-chan anywhere na no da."

Mint asks, "You don't think-"

"No," Ichigo answers quickly to interrupt her. "Lettuce would not get herself killed so easily. She's alive. If she wasn't, we would have found her body by now, and the vampire who killed her." She turns around lead the group in one direction but then she suddenly saw some hair flapping in the air before it disappeared behind a wall. She only saw a glimpse of it but she saw that it was a color of lime green – Lettuce's hair color. She always has her long hair in two braids. She stared at that way for a moment, thinking.

Mint asks, "Ichigo, what are you doing?! We don't have time to stand around and stare!"

Ichigo looks at her from the corner of her eyes with narrowed eyes for a moment. Then she looks the other way and says, "Then let's go this way, princess." She runs without an answer and the group follows her, running farther and farther away from Lettuce and Pai. Both of them are hiding behind a tunnel wall and Pai is holding Lettuce in a protective way. She leans on his chest, letting out a sigh to know that her friends are gone.

"That was close," she mumbles.

"She saw us," he mumbles, getting her attention, "and yet she moved the rest of the group away. Why is that?" He looks down at Lettuce after asking that.

Lettuce looks a bit guilty when she answers, "I told her. I was so sad. Everyone else thought it was because I was leaving my family and my hometown but Ms. Ichigo knew it was about something else. I felt like I could trust her so I told her. She is a good person. Despite her hatred towards vampires, she accepted my feelings for you and promised to keep it a secret from everyone else."

"A strange one, this Ichigo."

"She is a good person. If it weren't for her, the others would've suspected something and I…" she's in panic mood again.

"Shh," he tells her, his finger pressed to her lips. "I understand. I felt the same."

"You mean you…"

"To my brothers. They too accepted it, but they didn't understand." His hand moves to the back of her head and he pushes her closer to him. She leans against his chest as he holds her close, never wanting to let go. "How could anyone understand what we have?"

If only they could just stay there forever. It doesn't matter where they are, so long as they are together. Any place they go would be absolutely perfect, rather it would be a surprisingly clean underground tunnel or a filthy, desert club that was once swarming with vampires and vampire-wanna-be's. However, the only thing that can separate the two of them is time.

"They're coming."

Right when Lettuce was able to relax, Pai said that and awoke her back into reality. She looks up at him and he looks to the side, listening.

"Your comrades are gone but my brothers are coming. They don't know you're her and only one of your comrades knows." He looks back at her. She was expecting him to look at her with eyes asking 'what to do', but instead she sees eyes that hold an idea. The problem, she has a very bad feeling about those eyes.

"Shoot me."

"What?!" she asks. Then she starts franticing. "No…no…no! I won't. Pai, you can't make me…" He leans his forehead against her and he closes his eyes. She closes her eyes as well and her frantics begin to dissolve. "I…I..I don't…I don't want to…" Then she was done.

"I know," he tells her, looking at her. She looks at him and he leans to her ear. He starts whispering and she listens.

n-n-n

"Kisshu nii, slow down!" Taruto yells, getting a bit tired. Both him and green ring stop speed running and just stood there.

Until green ring turns around and yells at Taruto, "Slow down?! Taruto, Pai is somewhere in this maze with a hunter!"

"He can take care of himself! Onii-sama is not a weakling!"

"And what do you think will happen if those other hunters found him? We took care of one hunter! ONE! There are still five more! Do you think Pai can handle five hunters at once?"

"Onii-sama is strong. I think one of his best talents is being super strong. Did you see what he did to the floor?!"

"What do you think I am, blind?!" Then he pauses a minute to stop yelling. "I'm not going to argue with you about this further."

"You were the one who started it. Onii-sama is our older brother. Hence the term 'onii-sama', which means 'older brother' in case you've forgotten your Japanese. He's far smarter than us combined, actually sometimes I wonder if his brain is a computer, and he has experience. If he was in trouble, I think we would be hearing gun shots by now since that hunter only uses daggers."

_Bang_

"Like that."

Both Taruto and green ring stand perfectly still after hearing that for an awkward moment.

"Pai!!" green ring calls before running off to where they heard the gun shot. Taruto follows.

They both use super to get there as fast as they can to where they heard the shot. On the way, it didn't take long till they were smelling blood, blood of their brother. When they arrive, they stop dead in their tracks at the sight. They see Pai lying on the ground with a bleeding arm. There's a gunshot wound, hence the reason why it's bleeding and Lettuce is standing over him, his back to the other two vampires and she's holding a recently fired gun.

"End of the line for you, vampire," Lettuce tells Pai, not a hint of fear or guilt in her face. That was all green ring and Taruto needed to charge at her.

Lettuce saw at the corner of her eye that green ring is with his Sai in his hand, ready to slice her in half. She backs away right when he was going to slice her and she felt a hand grab her arm. Before she knew it, she was flipped over by Taruto and landed on the group with great strength. Pai tried not to alter his expression from the sight of Lettuce getting hurt as both of his brothers go to his side while Lettuce coughs and tries to breathe.

Taruto asks, "Onii-sama, you okay?"

Green ring places his hands on Pai's arm to check the wound as Pai answers, "I'm fine." Green ring pulls his right glove off and with his wickedly long fingernails he digs into Pai's wound. Pai winces slightly, even though it really hurts. Green ring made it quick. He dug out the bullet and examines it.

"A wooden bullet," he mumbles, only soft enough for his brothers to hear. He looks back at his older brother and says, "She could have used a silver bullet if she wanted to. She's her, isn't she?" Taruto looks at Pai in surprise of hearing this and Pai only stares at green ring, his eyes daring him to do something about it.

Then green ring senses something. He drops the bullet and then quickly grabs his Sai and stands up to press the edge of the blade at Ichigo's throat, who now has a gun pointing at his head. She didn't even bat an eye and he didn't either. Taruto's a bit surprise that she's here as Pai lifts himself up with his unwounded arm. Mint, Zakuro, and Pudding are by Lettuce's side as she's still trying to get some air back in her lungs after Taruto knocked the air right out of her.

Green ring looks at her up and down and he comments, "You're good," all cockiness and teasing gone. "If it weren't for the warm blood in your veins and your beating heart, I would say you're one of us."

"If it weren't for the dry veins and the dead heart, I would say you're human," she tells him.

He grins that time. "Touché. You know, you are kind of cute."

"Go fuck your brothers."

"And you're feisty. I like that."

"You're arrogant. I hate that."

Every word that she's saying is making this all the more entertaining to green ring.

"Well this is an interesting situation, isn't it? I have a wounded brother and you have at least two or one and a half hunter comrades wounded – one who I believe needs medical attention immediately." Now he's taunting her and he receives a glare from Ichigo for that. "I'm tired and a little thirsty, so how about we both lower our weapons and we go our separate ways? No one needs to die tonight."

"Or," she starts to suggests, "you can lower your sword and I promise to make it quick. Can't promise that'll be painless though."

Taruto sneakily goes to his pocket while he continues to stare at the two adults before him. Pudding saw him move at the corner of her eyes and she sees him taking out a small red ball, barely the size of a pea.

"Oh please don't be difficult, kitty cat," he begs with fake plead. However when Ichigo heard what he called her, she becomes instantly confused.

"Kitty cat?" she asks. Her friends and the vampires thought she said that as if she were confusingly insulted. But from what green ring sees, he sees a sense of familiarity in her eyes, like she knows someone who once called her that. Because of that look, he becomes confused as well.

Then Taruto puts the small ball between a finger and his thumb. Pudding has an idea of what he's gonna do.

"Look out, na no da!" she screams. But he crushes the ball and then…

_Poof_

A big puff of smoke appears and first consumes the vampires and Ichigo. That ball was a smoke bomb.

Ichigo starts shooting, once she came back to reality, but she was only wasting bullets. She found that out after the sixth bullet she fired. She didn't feel the heat of a vampire burning in front of her and the feel of the cold metal of green ring's Sai has left her neck. She did feel, moments later, a kiss on her neck from behind, along with the feel of hands on her arms. She instantly turned around to hit who ever did that but she feels that touch leaving her. With the smoke everywhere, she can't see. Neither could her friends. The smoke soon consumes them and the hunters tensed up and readied their weapons in case one of the vampires decides to take a bite. One did say that he was thirsty and one of them is wounded. They need blood to heal.

But the only thing that happened was physical touch that both Pudding and Lettuce felt. Lettuce felt a familiar and gentle hand touch her cheek and it slides down to her chin before smoothing its way to the opposite cheek. She only felt it for a moment before the touch soon leaves her. That was her good bye. Pudding felt someone lift up a few strands of her hair. She could only guess who that was before turning around and trying to punch who ever touched her while doing it. She felt nothing and her hair strands land against her face. When she felt nothing, she growled but then her eyes grew tender and they reveal nothing but tragedy.

Soon, the smoke clears and the vampires were long gone.


	7. Would you, Ichigo?

Ch. 7: Would you, Ichigo?

_Soon, the smoke clears and the vampires were long gone. _

_XxX_

"Ryou!" Mint calls, opening the door. "We're home!"

But tables of computers and mechanical parts, two men look up from their work and they see Mint walking towards them along with Zakuro and Pudding. One of them men that are there is a rather tall gentleman with a gentle, kind face. His long brunette hair is tied back into a low pony tail and the ends still long enough to touch his lower back. He has charming, elegant, warm chocolate eyes His skin is a bit fair for staying inside most of the time and his hands are rough from working. The second man there, a younger looking one, is not as tall as his friend. He's about a few inches shorter. Besides the height, there is a lot more that's different from his friend. He has blond hair and it's short. It compliments his toasty brown skin and his skin really brings out his blue eyes. While his friend looks elegant like a butler or something, he looks like a bad guy that came out of the streets. The other difference is that he's part mechanical. His right arm is made of auto mail and his left eye is a glass blue eye. The tall brunet is Keiichiro Akasaka and the auto mail, surf boy is Ryou Shirogane.

"Hi babe," Ryou greets as Mint comes to his lap and sits down. Then she kisses him lovingly on the lips.

Keiichiro greets, "Good evening, Ms. Zakuro."

Zakuro nods in his direction. "Evening."

Then he looks at Pudding and greets, "And to you, Young Pudding." All she does is nod in his direction. Not wanting to talk.

After the kiss, Ryou says, "I'm glad to know that you're alive."

"A club full of vampires? No problem." Then they kiss again, instantly involving tongues into the action.

Keiichiro asks the others, ignoring the scene besides him since he's seen this all too much, "Where's Ms. Lettuce and Mr. Masaya?"

Zakuro answers, "Masaya has four cracked ribs. Lettuce is wrapping his wounds." After hearing that, Ryou pulls away from Mint's kiss but she only starts kissing his cheek and then to his neck, playing with the skin on his body.

"And where's Ichigo?" he asks. Mint stops after hearing that.

She pulls away and asks him in the eye, "How come you're all concern about her all of a sudden?"

"Mint, we already talked about this," he reminds. "I don't-"

"-have feelings for her," Mint interrupts, finishing for him. "I know but guys can be such liars." Ryou only rolls his eyes and shakes his head. Here we go again.

Keiichiro asks, "Where is she though?"

Zakuro answers, "She's reporting to the Blue Knight. She's also going to apologize for allowing three vampires see the light of the moon of another night." Now Keiichiro and Ryou are a bit surprise to hear this.

"Three vampires…escaped…Ichigo's wrath. That's a first," Ryou comments.

Mint uses her hand to make him look at her and she says, "If it were me, they would be ash by now. Don't you think?" But before she allows him to answer, she kisses him passionately on the lips. He returns the feeling in great appreciation.

"It wasn't her fault, na no da."

Ryou and Mint stop and attention is turned to Pudding, who's staring down at the ground with angry, irritated eyes and her fists in tight balls. "If I wasn't so careless, one of those fuckin vampires would be dead by now, na no da. I won't fail next time, na no da. The next time we meet, the last thing that suckhead will ever hear is the boom of my explosion, na no da."

XxX

"Forgive me, Blue Knight. I was carless and I should have shot him the moment he stood up."

Ichigo stands before a desk and a man sitting in a chair behind it. The desk is old and practically a reck. It's made of metal and plastic, like an old business desk. However, the metal looks rusted and the metal looks worn out and faded. Oh well, it's quite alright. Behind the desk is a chair and sitting in it is a man. A man with long flowing golden hair, as yellow as the sun rays, and eyes as blue as the daylight sky. A man who appears possibly in his mid thirties but with the body and muscles of a young man in his earlier twenties. He sits at his desk with his elbows against the surface and his hands folded in front of his chin. Blue Knight just listened to Ichigo's full report of tonight's events.

Blue Knight appears to be thinking before asking, "You said that Pudding's friend, Taruto, the one who caused her to be a vampire hunter is a vampire himself?"

Ichigo nods. "Yes."

"What does she intend to do?"

"Her first reaction was that she attacked him as if he were any other vampire. I believe that she will kill him."

Blue Knight pauses to think again for a moment. "It's probably for the best," he says. "Once a human is turned, they are no longer the person they once were. You had several cases proving that point."

"Yes," she answers, "I have."

"I guess you may call this as a way of freeing their souls after they were condemned to be vampires. Has Pudding's intentions to continue as a vampire hunter changed?"

"No. I believe she's thinking of fulfilling her oath, only now she has to also kill her best friend."

"Do you believe she can handle it?"

She didn't answer right away. She stares at him, thinking about his question. "Pudding is still only a child. This was her first outing. If she had more experience, I would say 'yes'. But since she doesn't, my answer is no."

"Then I would trust you to finish what she can't."

Ichigo's expression remains the same but her finger twitches when she heard that. "You wish for me to kill him if she cannot?"

"Yes," he answers. "You said so yourself that if Pudding had more experience, she could kill him. But she can't because of her lack of experience. You've seen just as much as I have so you should be able to kill him without hesitation." That was when he stands up from his chair. He walks around his desk and approaches Ichigo. He places a fatherly hand on her shoulder as he says, "Out of everyone here, you are the one who I can most depend on to kill without mercy. Soon, my body will meet its end and I need someone to be there to hunt Deep Blue in my place. I expect nothing but success for you."

Ichigo nods, pleased to hear this. "Thank you, Blue Knight. You have been nothing but kind to me. I don't know what I would do if you didn't save me from Deep Blue. But, there is something I must ask you."

Blue Knight's hand slides off Ichigo's shoulders and he asks, "What is it?"

"Is it possible," she starts, "that he didn't die that day?"

"That he came back as a vampire?" he asks. She didn't answer. She looks up at him, waiting for an answer. He lets out a sigh before answering. "No. I found his body when you were unconscious and I buried him out of respect for you. I also checked if he was a vampire. He wasn't or he wouldn't be out in the sun when I found him."

Hearing that answer, a flicker of disappointment appeared on Ichigo's face for a moment. She quickly brushed it aside before Blue Knight got a chance to see it. She nods. "I understand. It doesn't matter anyway."

"If he did," the Blue Knight starts, "would you kill him if he was a vampire?"

Ichigo doesn't look at him when she thought about what to say. If he did come back as a vampire, would she be able to really kill him? Even if he remembers like how Taruto remembers?

"Yes," she answers. "If Pudding is still able to attack her beloved person, then it will be no problem for me to kill him."

After hearing that, the Blue Knight's lips curl up in a satisfied smile. "But that is only if he comes back a vampire. He was drained dry by Deep Blue. He won't ever come back, Ichigo."

Sadness flickers on her face again, but like before, she pushes it aside a moment later. "I know that."

XxX

While Mint, Zakuro, and Pudding went to greet the tech guys and Ichigo went to report to Blue Knight of tonight's events, Lettuce is inside a nurse's room, bandaging Masaya's wounds. As she finishes tying the wrap on his bare chest, he's asleep on the old mattress, resting.

The hideout that they are staying at is an abandoned school building. It would explain the nurse room and the principle's office that the Blue Knight is using as his own. The vampire hunters travel a lot and they need to hide in places that no one would see them. If either one of them, especially Ichigo, comes to a five star hotel room that they were staying at and they're covered in vampire blood or they look like a total reck, they would be suspected of killing humans and that would be a big problem. They need to act like they no longer exist in the world. So when they travel, they stay in abandoned apartment buildings or abandoned schools, abandoned factories and any place that has more than one room for Ryou and Keiichiro to work and for when the hunters need to be bandaged up after a rough hunt.

Right when Lettuce was done, the sliding door to the nurse's room opens and she looks up to see Ichigo closing the door behind her after she enters. She asks, "How is he?"

"Asleep," Lettuce answers. "I just finished bandaging his wounds. Like the vampire said before, he has at least four cracked ribs and impact of the hit to the wall causes him to have internal bleeding. He just needs rest. My strongest suggestion is that he takes it easy and tries to avoid as much action as he can."

"In other words, he has to play it safe?"

Lettuce nods. "Yes."

Ichigo can tell that Lettuce can hardly just sit in her seat. She knows that she wants to tell her about her reunion with Pai and how happy she is. So she lets out a sigh and says, "If Masaya is asleep and the others are nowhere near us, you can tell me."

That frees Lettuce from her staying-quiet charade as she says, "Oh, Ms. Ichigo. I'm so happy." She quickly gets up and hugs Ichigo with a joyful smile on her face and excitement exploding out of her like fireworks on the fourth of July. Before Ichigo could hug her back, Lettuce pulls away and says, "I never imagined that I would see him again after all these years."

Ichigo smiles at her friend's happiness and says, "It must have been such a relief then, after what happened in Spain."

"Yes! I was so worried that he wouldn't believe me and he would think bitter of me for telling him of my departure in such a cowardly way. But he felt the same pain I've felt from our separation."

Ichigo's smile sweetens and she hugs her friend in congratulations. "I'm happy for you, Lettuce. Despite my hatred towards them."

"Oh I know, Ms. Ichigo," Lettuce says, pushing herself away to look at her friend in the eye. "But Pai is a really good man. He's good and kind and he wasn't the one who flipped me over that time."

"I sure hope not. Otherwise, I would treat him with the same respect I give to any vampire."

After hearing that, Lettuce's joyful excitement calms down and she know stares at Ichigo with an observing glance. "Ms. Ichigo," she calls, causing Ichigo to lose her friendly smile. "If you hate vampires as much as you claim you do, then how is it that you accept my feelings and relationship with one?"

Ichigo took a moment before answering. She knew that Lettuce would ask her this question, sooner or later.

"It's because you were going to explode if you didn't," she answers. Lettuce stares at her curiously now. "I will admit that when I first heard you telling me about your feelings towards him, my first reaction would have been to slap some sense into you. But you're feelings were real when you told me and you're such a sweet girl. I didn't want you to get hurt anymore than you were when I saw you crying. Right now, I'm trying to coop with it. So long as it doesn't distract you from your hunting, you can even have a child with him for all I care. I hear that's possible."

Lettuce turns bright red when Ichigo said the last part. "A-a-a-a-a-a ch-ch-child?!" she asks, starting to freak out. "Are you crazy?! I mean it would be nice and all to have one when I retire but to talk about that now is just…" She would have continued but she's so red and embarrassed right now, she might explode if she thinks about the subject any further.

Ichigo smiles for a moment, seeing Lettuce freak out like this. But then she asks, "Are you going to run off to him at nights again?"

Lettuce's cheeks turn a little less red than before answering, "Yes. He already told me of a place we could meet and we can meet tonight."

"That fast, huh?" Ichigo asks. "Sounds like to me that he planned this pretty fast for someone who just got reunited with his lover."

"As I said, Ms. Ichigo. Pai is a good man. He wouldn't hurt me. I know he wouldn't. I'm just gonna bring with me a few silver daggers for protection against other vampires."

Hearing this, how can Ichigo tell Lettuce not to go? She lets out a sigh and says, "Alright then. I'll try and not notice that you left this building." After hearing that, Lettuce's face perks up again and she hugs her. When she hugged her, Ichigo looks to the side and she notices something.

"Thank you, Ms. Ichigo! Thank you," Lettuce tells her in gratitude.

"Why? What did she do?"

Both Lettuce and Ichigo break the hug and they look over Lettuce's shoulder to see Masaya awake and staring at them with a confused stare. Lettuce starts to panic, fearing that Masaya probably heard everything they said just now.

Ichigo calms down first and greets, "Good morning. How ya feeling?"

"Sore, but I'll live," he answers. "Is it morning already?"

Ichigo looks at her wrist and answers, "Yep. It's one in the morning."

"Oh," he answers. He relaxes on the old mattress and says, "We'll be asleep soon for another night of hunting."

"You're grounded," Ichigo tells him. "You have four cracked ribs and Lettuce just healed you from internal bleeding. You need to avoid vampire hunting action at all cost."

"And let you guys have all the fun?" he asks. "That's completely unfair."

"Your own fault for being so careless. Besides, Ryou and Keiichiro would still be here. If they're not working on some big project, then maybe you can give Ryou that rematch in chess you so wanted to have."

Hearing that causes his friendly smile to return. "I guess there's some good things that comes from being grounded. So what were you two talking about?"

That was a bit of a relief on Lettuce's part. It means that he didn't hear the earlier part of the discussion about her meeting her beloved vampire in secret. The problem is that now they have to figure out an answer. Thankfully, Ichigo thinks of ideas and lies really quick.

"Lettuce is still a bit pumped after the vampire hunt so since we're all going to turn in earlier, I'm giving Lettuce the charge of watching us until sunrise."

Masaya is staring at them with surprised eyes as he says, "Wow. I always thought it was Ichigo who would be eager to watch the group and kill a few extra vampires for the night."

Ichigo places her hand on her hips and says back, "Yeah, well I think it's time to give the spot light to someone else." Then she faces Lettuce and places an encouraging hand on her shoulder. "Don't have too much fun while you're out, okay?"

Lettuce eyes perk up again and she smiles in gratitude. "I promise."


	8. I Know Your Face pt 1

Ch. 8: I Know Your Face pt 1

_Ichigo places her hand on her hips and says back, "Yeah, well I think it's time to give the spot light to someone else." Then she faces Lettuce and places an encouraging hand on her shoulder. "Don't have too much fun while you're out, okay?"_

_Lettuce eyes perk up again and she smiles in gratitude. "I promise."_

_XxX_

'_Damn, I am so THIRSTY!!'_ Green ring thinks, leaning on the floor. If he was a human, he would suspect his stomach to be growling. He thinks, _'If I don't at least find a sewer rat soon, I'll end up finding some homeless person to quench my thirst!'_

Strange though. The fight is long over but he's still in his fighting suit. He even still has the mask on! He must be wearing it for camouflage so that he could get something to eat. But so far, he's been unsuccessful. Now he's leaning on the ground like some exhausted human who's on his hands and knees from either stress or a major workout.

After sighing in disappointment for the twentieth time, he lifts himself up and thinks, _'If I'm gonna devour a human, I should hurry up and go find one before dawn and I have to remember not to fully drain him dry or dad will give me crap about it later.'_ Then he starts walking to a sewer entrance to the surface world. He knows the sewer tunnels like the back of his hand and he knows that where he is, there's one not too far. It's a sewer entrance that leads to the quiet side of the Tokyo city, which is a surprise since Tokyo is so loud and bright. But as he's walking towards that entrance, he stops when he sees someone already there before him.

He sees Pai climbing up the ladder and he lifts up the lid to the entrance as quickly and quietly as he can. Quickly, green ring hides behind a wall and continues to watch as Pai quickly lifts himself up to the surface. Moments after he's out, he slides the lid back over the entrance so neither of his brothers or anyone above would suspect anything. Too bad since green ring already found him.

When his older brother was gone and it was safe to come out, green ring steps out of hiding and stares at the ladder and the entrance in confusion. This time he mumbles, "Where the heck is big brother going?"

XxX

_Knock_

_Knock_

Hopeful and eager, Lettuce jumps out of her chair in the security room and rushes to the door. She opens it and she sees Ichigo on the other side of it with a friendly smile on her face. "Okay now, Juliet," she calls her, "I'll take over from here."

Lettuce's smiles in great gratitude and hugs her friend. "Thank you, Ms. Ichigo. I promise that I'll make it up to you."

"Just come back alive and unharmed and we'll call it even."

After giving her one more hug squeeze, Lettuce pulls away and whispers, "Bye." Then she starts running down the hallway towards the exit, which should be a floor down and a left from where the security room is. Ichigo watches her friend run until she is out of sight. Once she can't see her anymore, she walks into the security room and closes the door behind her. Then she sits down at the chair in front of about ten security camera screens and she instantly spots Lettuce going to the door and opening it to make her grand escape to her lover's arms. As she continues to watch her go, Ichigo loses her smile and a face of concern appears on her face.

'_Please be safe, Lettuce.'_

Then Ichigo also sees something out of the corner of her eye. She looks at one screen and it's a camera that has a good view of the nurse's room where Masaya is resting in. She sees Masaya looking out the window, possibly already spotted that Lettuce has left the building.

"Shit!" she curses, before getting up from her chair and running out of the room.

The nurse's room is about two stories up from where she's at. She tries to run up as fast as she can and as quietly as she can so that she doesn't alarm anyone. But the moment that she arrives in the nurse's room, the room is empty, the window is open, and Masaya's weapons that were once resting on the counter next to his bed is gone.

Ichigo said one word. "Fuck."

XxX

In an alley, not too far from where the vampire club the hunters invaded earlier tonight, Lettuce looks around, searching for any other vampires who are out here. Just because she's meeting Pai at a place he claims is safe from his brothers and her comrades, it doesn't mean that it's safe from other vampires. She even came prepared. She has a few daggers hidden about all over her body – her arms, her ankles, her wrists, her thighs, and her waist. But they're all for safety precautions in case she meets a vampire who wants to take a bite out of her before she meets Pai, who she knows will protect her.

The alley is partially disgusting but mostly, surprisingly, clean. Usually, you find some alleys to be completely disgusting. Litter everywhere, someone's vomit that was there since last week, the stench of rotten food, cats meowing, rats running all over the place, and even some hobos sleeping somewhere in the alley way. However, there's barely any litter, there was the occasional smell of trash when Lettuce passed a garbage can, she hardly saw a cat or rat, she didn't see any hobos, except for some a few blocks down, and the alley looks almost as clean as if the road cleaning truck came driving by. Of course, that didn't really bother Lettuce. She noticed a long time ago that you can tell that vampires used to be here by the look of an alley. Since vampires have such a high sense of smell, it must be murder to deal with the stench of vomit, trash, and animal crap. So they would clean for the sake of their nose. Lettuce wouldn't even be surprise if the vampires also ate the hobos that used to live in this alley or she met some of them in the club when they were vampires.

"_**I know," he tells her, looking at her. She looks at him and he leans to her ear. He starts whispering and she listens.**_

"_**There's an old factory that's been abandoned for several years now. Not even vampires go near it. It's a factory that used to manufacture silver utensil for weddings. There's a formula we have that can help us withstand silver for a short amount of time and it can cure the silver infection, if we inject it quick enough. No vampire will bother us there."**_

And with the hunters, all but Ichigo, who don't know that she came out here, the old silver factory sounds perfect. They can be totally alone.

"_**It's only a block away behind the club. There might still be some vampires left, looking for a midnight snack so please be careful."**_

He didn't need to tell her. She's always careful. But getting overwhelmed to reunite with the one you love after all these years might make you a bit careless.

"Hey, sweet thing."

Like now.

Lettuce looks up at the voice and she sees a vampire approaching her with hungry eyes and extended fangs. Possibly to alarm her and to be afraid but she's only alarmed by the fact that she just came up and approach her. When she looks at him, the first thing she notices is the hundreds of piercings he has on his body. Besides the piercings, he looks pretty average, except for the black outfit. He's wearing a black sleeveless vest, some wrist bands with thorns, black nail polish, and really tight black pants. Possibly the only color he has at all is the dull yellow sash on his pants that's tied around his waist. That and white. He's bold, to reveal more of his pale white skin and his eye color is silver so it makes his black pupils look like dots in his eyes. Any person would flinch back and step away from this freaky vampire, but Lettuce seen worst. She stops walking and stands her ground, prepared to use any of her daggers if this guy comes any closer.

The vampire examines her from head to toe before grinning in satisfaction and stepping forward towards her. Trying to pull off her defenseless act, sort of acting like herself, Lettuce takes a step back from him until her back is up against the wall. Then he has a hand leaning on against the wall by her head and his face is only a few inches away from her. She can smell his breathe and he fed not too long ago. He tells her, "Now you look exquisite. I think I saw you somewhere before. Possibly at the club that was raided a few hours ago. You looks so delicious but you were taken. I do hope you're alone now, because I would love to have a taste you, if you know what I mean." And she does. Until she begins to feel his fangs ready to bite her will she take out of her daggers. She has one hand that goes behind her, to take out a dagger that's hiding behind her back. But right when she was just about to grasp the handle, a hand comes out of nowhere and grasps the vampire's shoulder.

When the vampire felt the hand on his shoulder, both him and Lettuce look up to see Pai glaring at the vampire with dangerous eyes. Lettuce felt so relieved to see him at last as he grasps the shoulder tighter, causing a crack to be heard and the vampire to wince in pain and back away from Lettuce and him. He asks, "What the fuck?!"

Pai simply tells him, "She's not alone." He grabs her arm and pulls her towards him. She allows that and she sees that his fangs are extended. "She's mine." Then he leans to her neck and she winces in the newly found pleasure and pain she's feeling. He grips her tighter and she moans louder.

The vampire was first surprised to see Pai feeding in front of him but then he puts on a smirk in defeat. "Whatever, fucker." Then he turns around and leaves. Minutes later, he was gone and Pai pulls away from Lettuce, his lips smothered in blood and Lettuce lifts her head up. They both look at the direction that the vampire walked away towards and they remained completely silent.

"I told you that there were still vampires left," Pai tells her, pulling away to lick the blood off his lips, revealing a small cut healing on his bottom one.

Lettuce giggles a bit in nervousness as she tells him, "That's partially why I came prepared. Thank you for coming though." He looks back at her and just stares.

"You weren't at all worried when I leaned in, were you?" he asks.

Lettuce looks a bit confused before telling him, "No. I trust you, Pai. You wouldn't bite me without me asking, would you?"

"If I did, would you say 'yes'?"

That almost sounded like the marriage proposal all over again. Lettuce gasp in surprise and he waits for her answer. Her heart thumps in her chest and the color begin to rise up to her cheeks. She couldn't help but look down as steam begins to escape through her ears. "I..I would, but not now. I want to be with you forever but…" She didn't know what to say or what not to say. If she says the wrong thing, he might take it the wrong way and think that she's like all of the other hunters. She would kill herself before that happens.

Then his body is right in front of hers again. She only had a second before he holds her close in a gentle, warm, loving hug. He tells her, "I do too, but I would prefer to wait. I like it when you blush." That only causes the red to deepen more on her cheeks.

While in hiding, someone thinks, _'I come all the way here, practically dying of thirst, just to watch my brother's love life?!'_ It's green ring and he's absolutely bored and dying behind on top of a building, having a good view of what's beneath him – including Pai and Lettuce. _'I feel like some pervert and I really need a drink!! Ugh!'_ He looks away and adds, _'And because I'm so close to some stupid silver factory, I'm becoming even more thirsty and I'm not wasting my silver cure just to watch this drama any longer.'_

As he was going to slowly and silently escape so that Pai wouldn't notice him, he sees something on the side also watching the two lovers reunite. He sees Masaya hiding behind a building two buildings down and he's greatly surprised to see the scene before him. Green ring is surprised to see him here.

'_Isn't that the hunter I kicked and ended up cracking his ribs?' _he wonders._ 'What's he doing here, standing no less?! This guy has some tolerance of pain for a human.' _Then he starts to think of the outcome of what might happen if Masaya leaves to tell the other hunters. _'If that hunter reports to the other hunters about one of their own loving a vampire, she might get into some big trouble. Not that it matters to me, but Pai would get upset he finds out I didn't do anything about it when I could. Man, he owes me for this!'_

After that, he forgot about being quiet and just uses his super speed to get off the roof, while causing a few small sounds which Pai heard. Hearing them, Pai lets go of Lettuce and looks up at the building behind him, only to see that no one is there. Lettuce, being confused, asks, "Pai, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he answers after a moment. He looks back at her and grasps her hand. "Come on. Let's get to the factory before another vampire comes along."

Lettuce softly smiles and returns the grasp. "Yes."

Pai leads Lettuce away from where they were and further away from Masaya's sight. He narrows his eyes and begins to follow them when a hand comes out from behind and covers his mouth. Then he feels a hand on his arm and he gets pulled back away from the edge of the building he was at. He looks up and he sees green ring by his face.

"Now if I were you, I would remain perfectly silent," he tells him. "You already have some cracked ribs. Don't want them to be broken now do we? Otherwise, you'll be out of action longer than you're supposed to be." Then he just let him go. Green ring releases Masaya before disappearing behind and appearing in front of him to block his way.

Masaya glares at the vampire before him before asking, "She's a spy for you, isn't she? That's why she didn't kill him when she had the chance!"

Green ring tells him, "She's not a spy for us. We wouldn't go so low as to send in a spy to lower your defenses. We can take care of you just fine, as you already know." Masaya glares daggers at him for saying that. He grasps the handle of his at his side, ready to use it if needed.

"That's why you ran away?" Masaya asks. Touché.

Green ring remains calm as he tells the hunter, "Look. Just turn around and go back to your little lair and heal so that I can kick your ass again later. And don't mention this to your friends. That girl is nothing more than a girl in love. There's no crime falling in love, is there?"

"There is if it's a hunter and a vampire," Masaya answers.

"Well if that's the case," a cocky smile appears on green ring's lips and he finishes, "I better make sure that when that red hair hunter and I start something, we'll be sure to be extremely secretive."

That angered Masaya. "That'll never happen! She hates vampires!"

"And you do too, from what I can see. You're not telling me that you're already in a relationship with her, are you? Or…You want to but she's not interested so you watch her from afar like some gutless, stalker-ish, lover-boy." After that, green ring had to lean back before Masaya's sword sliced his head off.

Green ring kneels to the ground and then kicks Masaya's stomach. Masaya gags and blood starts coming out of his mouth, causing green ring to tense as Masaya goes flying through the air before crashing into a trash can dumpster.

_Crash_

Pai and Lettuce look towards where they heard that crash. They're not close to it so the sound wasn't really loud. It was like an echo of the crash. They look at each other for a moment before getting up and rushing to the area they heard the crash. Ichigo heard that crash too and she's closer to it than Lettuce and Pai. She lost sight of Masaya a while back and was searching endlessly for him. Now she hears the crash and she didn't think it was a cat trying to find food.

Masaya gasps and pants as he feels agonizing pain from his side. Those cracked ribs are now broken and there's a small amount of blood dripping from his mouth. He has his eyes closed to try and deal with the pain but then he feels a presence in front of him. He didn't open his eyes to see that it was green ring until green ring is right in front of his face. He tensed up when he sees him but green ring quickly grabs his chin and leans closer. His tongue licks the blood from his chin to the corner of Masaya's mouth, only causing him to shiver in delight of the sweet taste. If his mask wasn't on, Masaya would see green ring's hungry, possessed, red eyes. Green ring grabs Masaya's sword and tosses it to the side before grabbing Masaya's arm and his chin again to hold him in place. He opens his mouth and long, sharp fangs appear before he bites down on Masaya's neck. Masaya screams the moment he felt the fangs piercing his neck.

"AAAHHHH!!!"

Green ring's hand rises up from his neck to cover his mouth as he continues to devour the hunter's blood. Masaya still screamed, despite the fact that now it's muffled. It hurts. Having your life being drained from your very veins and to have the vampiric venom replace the blood. It burns. Masaya tries to push green rings off him but he's growing weak and green ring is getting stronger. Masaya's heartbeat slows and now it's getting harder and harder to breathe. He stopped screaming but green ring still has his hand over his mouth as he continues to drink his full. If he continues any longer, Masaya will die from blood loss.

Then something comes rolling by.

Hearing the sound of something rolling, a disturbance in the silence green ring was finally able to make, he stops feeding and he sees a small bomb rolling close to both Masaya's and his body, ready to explode. He pulls away and instantly backs away when the bomb explodes.

_Boom_

Ichigo stands several feet away and she stands there and watches when green ring pulled himself away and a big silver cloud of smoke appears. The green ring vampire only had enough time to pull himself away a few inches from Masaya before the bomb exploded. So when he came pathetically rolling out like a rock being thrown to the ground, Ichigo saw some silver nitrate on his face and some spots on his body. He comes rolling out and then his body starts twitching in pain of the silver seeping through the clothes and touching his skin. Apparently that suit can't protect him against everything. But as he quickly goes to his pocket for something, Ichigo doesn't pay attention to him. Her attention is to Masaya who is panting and gasping against the trashcan.

Ichigo walks towards Masaya and on her way, she picks up his sword. Masaya's hand is over his bit mark and he's sweating balls of sweat on his brow and pretty much all over his body. Ichigo made no noise, nor did she make any movement then standing before him. After a few seconds, Masaya finally looks up at her, noticing her presence. He looks up at her and she stares blankly at him. Then his lips curl into a smile and he tells her, "It burns. It feels like the venom is rushing through my veins like water and a drain pipe. Does it always feel like this? But yet again, you wouldn't know. You're still a human and there's no cure for vampirism."

"That's correct," she finally says. Then she raises the sword and aims the point at his heart. He didn't seem to mind this in the least.

"Do what you must," he tells her. Then he smiles even sweeter and tells her, "Thank you for everything, Ichigo."

In a quick and swift movement, Ichigo thrusts the sword into Masaya's chest, right where his heart should be. A quick and painless death. He stops panting, he stops gasping, his chest is still, his hand drops from his neck, and peaceful expression is on his face. Then moments later, his entire body begins to take an entirely different color, one of ash. His whole body, clothes and all turns to ash and as if a gust of wind just blew by, his body dissolves into tiny particles of ash and flies away into nothing. What was left of Masaya is now gone, all but his sword that Ichigo used to kill him with.

While that was happening, green ring quickly took out a hospital needle from his pocket with a yellowish liquid inside. He rips off the plastic cap cover and instantly stabs the formula into his leg. As he injects the formula inside, he begins to feel a bit better. The once burning, agonizing sensation begins to numb away and he can feel his wounds healing from the blood he was able to feed on from Masaya. But he has a large amount of silver nitrate on his mask. He had no choice but to pull it off or he might receive too much silver that could kill him even after he took the cure.

His teeth are clench together and a growl escapes through his teeth. "That bitch is dead!"


	9. I Know Your Face Pt 2

Ch. 9: I Know Your Face Pt 2

As Ichigo watches the last of Masaya's ashes fly through the wind, she knows that something is moving. Not small moves like standing up or bending a figure. She senses someone circling around her like how a predator stalks a prey. All she does is look to the side where green ring should be and all she sees is his mask with a large amount of silver nitrate on it. She also sees a used, empty hospital needle on the ground, the needle covered in blood. Then Ichigo feels green ring's presence behind her and then moving.

"Either you're immune to silver, which is impossible," Ichigo mumbles, knowing that the vampire can hear her, "or you suckheads found a cure."

She hears, "What does it look like to you?" Then a Sai comes shooting out from the shadows behind Ichigo. Right when it was going to hit her, she turns around and blocks it with Masaya's sword.

"A cure and an immune formula," she answers as the Sai goes flying back into the darkness. Since she didn't hear the _clingily-clang_ it would make if it hit the ground, she knows that green ring caught it. She adds, "There's a silver factory not far from here. If a vampire could go near it, it either means that he wants to commit suicide or he's found a way to be immune to it."

She feels his presence from the side but doesn't move. Her ears are open and she's going to trust what her gut is going to tell her. She hears green ring, "Very good, for a hunter."

Another Sai comes shooting out from the opposite side Ichigo felt the presence before and instead of blocking it, she ducks and the Sai stabs the wall, only to disappear moments later. She asks, "Are you going to come out and fight or are you going to circle me like a coward?"

"How about I kill you now?"

Then Ichigo feels the presence behind her and she only had a second to turn around. His Sai came thrusting towards her and grazes her arm. She raises her sword and slashes at his shoulder. They both step back from the hits and they both cover their wounds with their hands. Ichigo winces and looks at her cut, only to see it overflowing with her blood. She didn't waste time grabbing the edge of her shirt to tear off a piece and wrap her arm nice and tight to stop the bleeding. Green ring took a moment to handle the pain in his shoulder as the cut slowly heals. Because the sword was made of silver, it took longer and because it was silver, it left a scar on his shoulder. He growled when he sees the damage this hunter did to him, but then he took another moment to get a little cocky.

"At least I can heal, hunter," he tells her.

Ichigo looks back at him but he backed up all the way to the shadows. She only sees a silhouette of him from the light of a neighboring lamp post. "How long exactly does that miracle cure work?"

"About a couple of hours. So you're pretty screwed if all you have is a silver sword."

"Vampires who just recently consumed blood only need a second to heal large wound like the one I gave you. Judging from how long it too you, you can heal from a silver blade but it takes a while. Tell me this, do you have a scar?"

Man, she's good and it's annoying green ring.

"You know what, smartass bitch? You're really starting to get on my nerves."

"Then hurry up and die and we can call it a night."

"Ladies first."

Then they both charge at each other. He raises one sai up to stab her and she blocks it with his sword. He gets his other one ready and she still blocks it. She ends up going back and he pushes forward. With his speed and her speed, Ichigo doesn't have time to have good look of his face now that he's out into the light and he's too angry to really look at her as well.

The next time that green ring struck, he uses both Sais and Ichigo blocks it before pushing him back. This time, it became her turn to strike. He blocks and she keeps going, sending at least two or three attacks a second. He still blocks them but this time, he moves back and she pushes him back.

_Cling, clang_

_Cling, clang_

_Cling, clang_

It goes on and on. Then he got smart.

Green ring ducks at the last attack and tries to trip her. She jumps and that left her open long enough for him to kick her as he comes up. She gets hit and hits a wall in process. She hits it with as much force as Masaya did earlier, causing his ribs to crack, but Ichigo's bones are as sturdy as steel from past experience. When he didn't hear any bones cracking or breaking, he growls in frustration and charges at her as she comes as she falls to the ground. Ichigo does a flip before landing safely on the ground like a cat and she looks up to see green ring right in front of her. She ducks right when he was going to stab her. His Sai stabbed the wall pretty deeply and Ichigo took that moment to kick him right in the jaw. He lets go of his Sai and stumbles back into the shadows to grasp his now broken jaw. He quickly shifts it so it can heals properly in place, a loud _crack_ sound being heard in the process. Ichigo grabs the Sai in the wall and pulls it out with ease. Green ring looks back at her and he sees this.

"What are you, exactly?"

Ichigo answers, "Just a hunter with a life time of experiences. It was your master who inspired me."

He narrows his eyes at her when he heard that. "And how would you know who my master is?"

"You and your soldiers wouldn't have been so direct with your black outfits at the club tonight if your master wasn't Deep Blue." His eyes widen in surprise of the name. Bingo.

Ichigo tosses the Sai at the vampire's feet and he looks down from his Sai to her. She tells him, "Don't get the wrong idea. You will die tonight and I would prefer it be a fair fight. If you lose your weapon again, I won't give it back."

While watching her, slowly but carefully, green ring bends down and picks up his sai. "You are one strange hunter, and a strong one. Too bad I won't do the same for you if you lose your weapon. I will protect my master at all cost, even if that means I have to get my hands dirty."

"Fine by me," she tells him. "I never expected vampires to play fair anyway. You damnable monsters stole everything from me only because they were food!" Then she charges at him again and this time with more speed and power in her attacks. He was surprise by this but quickly blocks her attacks and jumps up to get away. She stares at him with murderous eyes as she yells, "Was that fair?! HUH?!" Then she charges at him again with the same murderous intention.

As green ring blocks her moves, he thinks, _'Okay, now this woman is crazy!'_

Ichigo does a high kick while turning around and he ducks, only to meet her other foot after the other landed on the ground. Her foot hit her right in the forehead and he goes crashing into a building so that he could create a hole in it. Good thing the building was abandoned otherwise that would cause some neighboring complaints.

For a few moments, there was nothing but silence. Ichigo pants, her chest rising up and collapsing down as she stares at the hole before her. That's probably the first time in a fight she's been so excited towards a vampire. She hasn't gone that fast or that strong since practice with the Blue Knight. He always pushed her and pushed her to her limit so that when the time came, she would be ready for Deep Blue. Green ring was tough, tougher than any vampire she ever fought with, but now it's over.

Or so she thought.

When one rock shifted in the pile of fallen rocks from the hole, Ichigo gasp because she knows what that means and she feels a presence behind her as well. She quickly raise her sword to slice him but he was prepared this time and knock the sword right out of her hands. The sword went flying through the air and his other Sai came charging at her throat. But right when he was going to stab her, a gun appeared right by his head and Ichigo is the one holding it. His Sai stays at her throat and her guns points at his head, just like last time. Now being at a 'If you kill me, I'll kill you' stance, they both have time to catch their breath and to stare at the other. He's covered in dust and he has some dirt smudges on his skin. He also has some dry blood on his face when she kicked him but when Ichigo looks past all that, she sees something very, very surreal about this vampire's face.

Like all vampires, he has the common chalky pale white skin, the extended fangs that she has already seen when he had his mask on, and the demon like eyes. Truth be told, he looks like all the other common vampires. It's only the facial features that cause Ichigo to become shock beyond repair. His hair is a weird hair style. It's short but the hair strands in front of his ears are about shoulder length. With the little light of the lamp post and her advanced eye sight, she can tell that his hair is a dark shade of emerald green. He appears to have a rather girlish look with his big emotional eyes and it was those eyes that completely set Ichigo off. Those eyes are a golden amber color, a color she only saw on one person in her life – and possibly two if her assumption is wrong, which she hopes it is.

But she isn't the only one who's surprise by the other's appearance. Now that he too has a good look on her face, his face morphs from that of anger to that of surprise. Her fiery red locks of hair are beautiful and scarcely familiar. He has this feeling that if he touches that hair, it will feel like one of the softest things he has ever felt. Her skin, unlike his pale white skin, is full of color. A nice, slightly tan color, smooth, and beautiful. Her lips are a bit small, but he has this feeling like a big, joyful smile used to be on those lips. And when he goes back to her chocolate brown eyes, they're shock and full of disbelief at the moment but he knows that they used to be filled with such warmth, happiness, joy, and love.

"I…I know your face," he tells her, his voice almost a whisper. Still she heard him and her assumption has been proven, despite how much she doesn't want to believe it.

"But you can't…," she mouths. "It's not possible. You can't be."

"M-Ms. Ichigo?"

Ichigo looks over her shoulder and so does green ring and they both see Lettuce and Pai looking at them in confusion and surprise.

"Wh-" Lettuce shutters, "What are you doing here?"

"As of you, Kisshu," Pai says. The moment that he said the vampire's name, Ichigo moves her gun from green ring's, or Kisshu's head and aims it at Pai, moving away from Kisshu's Sai in the process.

"Don't call him that!" she yells. Okay, now she's crazy. "That's not his name!"

Lettuce steps in front of Pai and tries to say, "Ms. Ichigo, please calm down. Put the gun down."

"That's not his name!" she still screams. "Kisshu died a long time ago! He was murdered by Deep Blue!"

When she said that, Lettuce and Pai widen their eyes in shock and something struck Kisshu's brain like a fallen piano. He started to see visions flash before his eyes. He saw a farm, two farms actually, animals grazing, the warm shiny sun, and two happy families. A mother and a father who were always smiling and another family who were just the same and they had a smiling, happy daughter. A daughter who very much resembles the hunter before him. There was something else he sees too. He sees fire, blood, bodies, and light blue demon eyes.

"Ah!" he yells, his head hurting. Attention is turned to him as he collapses on the ground shortly after his Sai fell to the ground as well. He holds his head in pain as his head continues to pound harder and harder like a heartbeat.

Before Ichigo knew it, someone grabs the gun in her hand and twists it out of her grip. She looks back and she sees Lettuce with the gun in her hand. She also sees at the corner of her eyes Pai moving pass her to Kisshu's side. Lettuce pleads, "Ichigo, please." But she still looks like she can't grasp what is being shown to her right now.

Pai places his hands on his brother's shoulder and tells him, "Kisshu, hang in there." Now, Kisshu's shaking in surprise of his memories.

"Pai," he calls, almost sounding like a whimper. "What is this? I don't…I don't understand them."

"Deep Blue already told you about your past," Pai reminds. The thing is, both Ichigo and Lettuce heard him despite his efforts to lower his voice so they couldn't. "None of these memories should surprise you."

Ichigo turns around and asks, "What?"

Then out of nowhere, something comes flying out of the shadows and lands between the hunters and the vampires. It's a bomb and it's blinking red.

_Boom_

A big cloud of garlic gas explodes, causing Ichigo and Lettuce to cover their eyes when they stung and to cough when the strong scent of garlic hit their noses. As the gas started to clear away, neither Ichigo nor Lettuce could see anything for a while thanks to the tears blurring their vision and they couldn't hear anything because it was canceled out by the sound of their coughs. When they could, they look back up where they saw Pai and Kisshu and they weren't there anymore. Either they got away before the bomb exploded or they were destroyed by the garlic bomb. Whatever the reason, it made Lettuce and Ichigo stare at the area in surprise and concern instantly grasp a hold of their hearts. Even if they did run away when they could, it doesn't mean that they left unharmed.

"Are you two alright?"

Both girls look up to the side and the only person they see is Blue Knight. He walks towards them with his sword in came in case of a combat battle. They didn't have to think twice of who threw that bomb. Instead of feeling relieved to see him here, Ichigo felt anger the moment she set her eyes on him.

He asks her, not noticing Ichigo's anger, "What are you two doing out here in the first place?"

Without a word to answer his question, Ichigo goes up to him and grabs her collar. She even forces him to the wall of a building with great force. When Blue Knight looked at her, her eyes told him one thing; pissed off.

"Ms. Ichigo!" Lettuce calls, surprised to see this reaction.

Blue Knight asks, "Have you gone mad or did the vampires hypnotize you?"

She didn't answer those questions either. She only accused, "You told me that he was dead!" Blue Knight's light blue eyes widen in surprise after she said that and now, stunned by her behavior, Lettuce stands where she is and watches. "You told me that you found his body and buried him! How could you lie to me?! I trusted you!"

"Was lying to you this one time destroyed your trust and faith in me?" he asks, remaining his calm and cool self. That startled Ichigo. "You were crying your last tears in my arms. How could I tell you that your precious friend has turned into a monster?"

Although what he says is true and it makes Ichigo not want to punch his lights out even more, she's still upset. She harshly releases him and looks away. She doesn't want to see his face as she tells him, "It would have been better than lying to me all these years."

Blue Knight fixes his collar and tells her, "Now that you know, you'll kill him right?" Ichigo's eyes widen when she heard that. "You told me before that if you find out that he's alive, you won't hesitate to kill him like the rest since Pudding is willing to kill her precious friend."

Lettuce asks, trying not to sound desperate, "You mean they're alive?"

He answers, "They escaped before the bomb exploded. That other vampire is strong to be able to carry his comrade in such a short amount of time." As much as Lettuce wanted to let out a sigh of relief, she controls herself so that Blue Knight won't get suspicious. The last thing she needs right now is someone like him knowing her secret. He's just as bad as Ichigo on their desire to kill all vampires and Lettuce should be lucky that at least Ichigo accepts her feelings. Blue Knight might not.

"Now will you tell me why you two are out here only minutes away from dawn?" he asks. When Ichigo and Lettuce look up at the sky, they can see the once dark sky starting to change color from dark blue to purple with a hint of pink. Looks like it was good that those two vampires left.

Ichigo finally calmed down and answers, "Masaya left his room and Lettuce and I were already awake when he left the perimeter. We followed him and we found out that he was bitten. I had no choice." Outside, Lettuce looked like she had nothing to hide while on the inside, she's surprise to hear that Masaya was involved.

Blue Knight first looks at Ichigo to see if she's lying and then at Lettuce. But they're both professional liars. He's not going to get much out of them. Then he examines the area and he sees Masaya's sword on the ground from when the vampire knocked it out of Ichigo's hand. He also sees Ichigo's gun in Lettuce's hands, the hole in the wall, and the bent looking trashcan.

"Then I have nothing to worry about," he says. The hunters look at him confused as he says, "If you can kill your comrade who's been with you for years and he was turned into a vampire, then I don't have to worry about you not killing your friend. Now let's go home and get some rest." He places his hand on her shoulder but then Ichigo slaps it off.

He was a little surprise about it until she tells him, "You still lied to me." Then she starts walking away, back to their base and the Blue Knight watches her with blank eyes.

XxX

"You told me that she was dead!" Kisshu accuses, yelling at the vampire sitting down at a chair. Right now, he's in the sewers in one of the round looking rooms and there's a vampire sitting in a chair, looking rather weak like he's dying.

That dying vampire tells Kisshu with his weak, gasping voice, "I told you that the Blue Knight took her away after she fainted. I'm just as surprised as you are that she's still alive."

"And now he has her." Kisshu turns around to the wall and leans against it try and calm himself down before he kills the vampire before him by accident. He takes deep breathes in and out to calm himself down and his mind wonders. "I have to go to her."

"It's already dawn," the vampire tells him. "Even if you go out with your UV proof suites, you'll be weak and you'll be at the mercy of their weapons before you could even see her."

After hearing that, it only made Kisshu more irritated. He grits his teeth together, his fists in tight balls, and his throat rumbling with a growl. What he ends up doing next is yelling, "Damn this whole thing to hell!" Then he punches the wall and smashes a big part of it out. Then he leans against it and slides down to his knees. "Why did it have to come to this?" he asks, leaning against the wall, his heart heavy with irritation and sorrow.

"Kisshu."

Kisshu looks over his shoulder and the vampire has his arms opened to him. "Come here, my son." Obeying, Kisshu crawls to the vampire's side and lean against his lap as the vampire holds him close in a comforting way. "Even though I told you of your past and now your memories are starting to return, you still don't remember her, don't you?"

Kisshu shakes his head. "No," he answers. "I want to. I want to remember her but all I see are visions. I don't understand them and when I try, I can't. Deep Blue, I hate this."

"I know," Deep Blue answers, his hand going to Kisshu's head and stroking it. "I know it's hard but please be patient. The time will come when you'll see her again and I want you to be strong when it does. I won't be around much longer."

Kisshu looked up at him in fear when he said that. "Don't talk like that, please," he pleads. "You're going to survive this. It's too early for you to leave me."

"I've been around long enough," he tells him. "Not even vampires are immortal. We just live a really long time." Kisshu, not really wanting to hear this, leans his head back on Deep Blue's lap and he continues to stroke his head as if Kisshu's a child needed to be comforted. "I have done things I'm not proud of and it's time I atone for my actions."

"You haven't done anything wrong," Kisshu tries to tell him, tightening his grip on his vampire father.

Deep Blue reminds him, "I killed so many people out of my thirst and I hurt many more. Some being Taruto, his friend, Pai and his lover, and now you along with your friend. You are my precious son. I can't stand hurting you anymore than how I've hurt others. I want you to be happy."

"And I am. If it weren't for you, I would have been murdered just like my parents."


	10. A Choice

Ch. 10: A Choice

"Masaya has been what?!" Mint asks, not believing what she's just been told.

Ichigo repeats, "Eliminated. He was turning into a vampire. I had no choice. If I had let him become a vampire, we would have to hunt him down anyway and eliminate him."

Sitting at his desk, Blue Knight explains, "He knew too much about us and too much about our weakness."

"But vampires don't remember their past lives once they're turned!" Mint tries to remind.

"But after a period of time, they will remember," Ichigo reminds. "When his thirst completely controls him and he becomes completely brainwashed by those suckheads, he would use his knowledge of us against us and destroy us."

Despite what she says to be true, Mint still looks angry.

It's near night time and since everyone is basically up at sunset to prepare themselves for another night of hunting, Blue Knight, Ichigo, and Lettuce decide then to tell them the tragic news of their formal comrade and friend. Especially when they were all asking on how his condition was. Everyone is in Blue Knight's office and they were just told the tragic news, or at least the main part.

"It was for the best," the Blue Knight says. "He's at peace now."

"But who turned him, na no da?!" Pudding asks, upset about the news herself. "We should kill whoever did that to him, na no da!"

"There will be no need," Blue Knight tells her. "Ichigo will find and destroy Kisshu for what he did."

"Kisshu?" Zakuro asks, confused.

"He's the other vampire that was with Taruto and Pai," Ichigo answers. Hearing his name, Pudding's widen a bit before relaxing to normal. But she widens her eyes again when Ichigo adds, "And like Pudding, he was my friend from my childhood. He was turned into a vampire by that bastard Deep Blue." Hearing that, everyone, but Lettuce and Blue Knight, gasp.

Then their shock turned into sympathy.

Keiichiro says, "Ichigo, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," she tells him, being her cold self as always. "My friend's been dead for years. He still is. That think that looks like an older version of him is a blood thirsty monster who I found feeding on Masaya."

"Did he remember you, like how Taruto did?" Ryou asks.

Ichigo didn't answer right away. She was remembering that time when Kisshu was on his knees in pain and Pai was besides him.

"_**What is this? I don't…I don't understand them."**_

"_**Deep Blue already told you about your past. None of these memories should surprise you."**_

"No," she answers. "He didn't remember me." Lettuce looks at her for that and the others look at each other, in even more sympathy.

"We see," Keiichiro says, his voice still so full of sympathy and pity.

"As I said, Keiichiro, don't be sorry. I don't need your sympathy or pity."

They all look at her again and this time, she's not looking at them. She's looking at the ground, her eyes still so cold and hard as it always is when they go on a hunt or she's really upset.

Then Blue Knight says, "Anyhow, we're leaving Japan."

After hearing that, Ichigo looks at him and Lettuce's eyes widen in a bit of terror and this time, she's not going to hide it. The others look at him in shock as well.

"Leave?" Mint asks. "What do you mean 'leave'?!"

"Exactly as I said," he answers.

"But we can't leave, na no da!" Pudding yells. "We're so close to getting Deep Blue and you want to leave when he's weak, na no da?!"

"I believe that Masaya was a spy for the vampires."

Hearing this, Ichigo's hand twitches but her expression remains the same. Both her and Lettuce stand there, allowing the Blue Knight to tarnish Masaya's name while the others go speechless. Some of them at least.

Zakuro asks, "A spy?"

"Yes. It would explain why Masaya was out there this morning. Why else would he go when he was wounded and end up turning into a vampire when Ichigo and Lettuce found him? I understand your anger and your confusion but we can't take any chances of him possibly spilling out information of where we are and our defenses. You said so yourself that their suits can withstand UV rays. They would come to us in our sleep and in great numbers. We would be restless and exhausted, perfect prey for them. Now that we have killed one of their own, we have no choice but to leave."

Mint then says, "Forgive me, Blue Knight. But I can't believe that he was a spy. He was with us for so many years. We fought battles with one another so many times and we saved each other just as much. A vampire nearly killed him and vampires killed his family and friends. What proof do you have that he could be a spy?!"

"He was out there this morning, was he not? What proof do you have that he wasn't a spy?"

After being asked that, Mint gets quiet. She has no proof that he wasn't a spy.

Then Blue Knight asks Ichigo, "Do you agree with me, Ichigo?"

The attention is turned to her and Lettuce is the only one who's looking at her with eyes of plea. Ichigo slightly glares at Blue Knight for this. He's putting her on the spot.

"I agree with you, Blue Knight," she answers. Lettuce's eyes wide, bigger than her big round glasses and Ichigo adds, "As much I actually disagree with you. But that is out of my desire to kill Deep Blue now while he's weak."

The Blue Knight closes his eyes in understanding and says, "Someday you will understand. Now we are to leave immediately. Pack up as much as you can carry and wait for my orders." As commanded, everyone turns around and heads for the door. Ichigo took a moment to look at Lettuce but she didn't look up at her. "Ichigo." She stops walking and looks over her shoulder to see the Blue Knight standing up. "May you stay for a moment? I need to speak with you."

The door closes and Ichigo looks up to see that everyone is gone out of the room. When everyone was out of ear shoot, the Blue Knight walks in front of his desk and leans on it. Sitting beside him is a closed laptop. Ichigo looks back at him and he says, "There is something I wish to show you." He opens the laptop and starts typing on the screen. Ichigo at first only stands there, watching as soon a screen appears. He moves it so that she can see and what she sees is a recording of what the video cameras caught this morning. She sees the front of the school and she sees Lettuce leaving the school and shortly after she ran away from the front door, Masaya appears from by landing in front of the door with his sword in hand. Then he leaves by running after Lettuce. Ichigo's eyes widen when she sees this. Luckily for her, she didn't appear on the camera. She left the school through the back door to get away from camera's view.

Ichigo looks up at the Blue Knight and she asks, "Why are you showing me this?"

"I'm showing you this because I suspect of Lettuce being the spy instead of Masaya," he answers.

Then Ichigo got it. "You were bluffing. How many lies must you say until you're satisfied?"

"I simply wanted to see their reactions. Especially hers. If my calculations are correct, then Lettuce would be packing up to go to those vampires. I understand that you told me that you and Lettuce left at the same time to protect her but if she's the enemy, then you mustn't."

Ichigo looks away, in guilt and frustration. Her fist becomes a tight ball and she literally spat the words right out of her mouth, "I didn't want to believe that she is a spy. She's been with us longer than Zakuro, Masaya, and Pudding and she's been a vampire hunter her whole life."

Then she felt his hand on her shoulder like how he did yesterday and he tells her, "You can't always believe what you see. I understand you must feel very hurt and betrayed right now. But we can't let these feelings rule us. If Lettuce really is a spy for the vampires, I want you to follow her." His hand slides off her shoulder and he goes to his pocket. Ichigo looks back at him and she sees him taking out a rather magnificent looking gun. It looks like one of those silent guns but it looks new and hand crafted. "Take this." He gives her the gun and tells her, "That gun has tracking bullets inside of it. When you fire that gun, the bullets will automatically activate. It cannot be without being fired. The vampires won't feel it nor can they hear it working. They would just think that we are using useless, regular bullets normal humans would use. I'll tell the others of Lettuce's treachery and we'll depend on you to lead us to their lair. There, we will end it once and for all."

Ichigo examines the gun in her hand and she grasps it, getting the feel of how it is in her hand. Then she feels Blue Knight behind her with his hand on her shoulder again and his lips by her ear. "I know that you will not fail me, Ichigo. Forgive me for not telling you the truth about him but I did it to protect you. I see now that my method of protecting you only hurt you more. I am sorry."

Ichigo grasps the gun in her hand tighter and tells him, "I understand, Blue Knight."

XxX

Lettuce quickly puts her weapons on her body. She lifts up her pants on her leg and she replaces the dagger in its sheath where it is tied all around her calf. She actually put several daggers there since she also has several sheaths wrapped around her calf. She also puts more daggers on her arm, behind her with a gun, and she puts some bombs on her belt. Every weapon she can carry.

"You're packing rather fast, Lettuce."

Lettuce flinches when she heard that. She turns around and she sees Ichigo at her door, closing it behind her when she entered. She did not expect her and she watches her as Ichigo walks towards Lettuce's desk where a piece of paper awaits. There's something written is on it and despite how wet the ink still is, it was written recently.

Ichigo reads aloud, "'My dear friends, I am sorry that it has come to this but there is something you must all understand. Masaya wasn't a traitor. He was following me this morning as I was going to secretly see the vampire I love. I was never a traitor to you for I did not unleash any information about us nor was I going to. I merely went to see him and now I am leaving you all because I cannot bear it to part from him again. You see, we met before I met you and it broke my heart when I had to leave him and I had to tell him by leaving a letter for him to find. It was pathetic and I was lucky enough for him to believe me when we met again last night. I don't want to do that to him again. The next time we meet, my friends, we might be enemies and I might not remember you. Thank you for everything and I'm sorry. Farwell. Lettuce.'" Ichigo looks back up at Lettuce and Lettuce stands her ground as if ready for a fight if it comes down to that. "Are you willing to fight me, Lettuce?"

She answers, "Only if you're going to stop me, Ms. Ichigo. I can't leave him again. I just can't."

Ichigo puts the letter back down on the desk and says, "I see. The Blue Knight has asked me to follow you if you leave tonight." Lettuce's eyes widen when she hears this. "We've been sloppy. There was a camera by the front door and it recorded the moment you left and when Masaya followed you. I should have realized that he would check the security cameras after what happened."

"So he was bluffing about Masaya being a spy?"

"Yes. He just wanted to see your reaction. Lettuce, I can't allow you to be caught or accused of being a spy. You're my dear friend and I can't bear it if you get trampled so low."

Lettuce looks at Ichigo with soften eyes. She feels touch by Ichigo's words but she regains her strong composed self and tells her, "But I can't leave him a letter like that time again. He may not believe me the next time we meet, if we meet again. Ms. Ichigo, I will leave and I am going to be with Pai, even if it means giving up my life and my humanity. If you want to stop me, then you'll have to kill me."

"I'm not gonna stop you."

That was completely unexpected. Lettuce's eyes widen when she hears this. Ichigo tells her, "I'm here to ask for a favor. I want you to take me with you."


	11. Don’t Touch Her

Ch. 11: Don't Touch Her

"What the hell are we doing here?!"

With the music blasting techno music and vampires either dancing on the stage, the tables, or the floors, socializing, or feeding, Taruto, Pai, and Kisshu sit at a table with a glass of blood in front of them. Taruto is the only one all up in arms while Pai is being his calm, stoic self and Kisshu is rather quiet while laying on the table, staring at the bottom of his glass.

"After what happened last night," Pai begins to answer, "I figured that we could all use some distraction." And this is one big distraction if you count the techno music blasting in your ears, the vampires kind of having sex on the dance floor, the weird piercings, and the smell of decaying bodies that are on some of the vampire's clothes.

"Which reminds me!" Taruto yells again, well there goes trying to calm him down. "What the hell were you two doing having some kind of last minute excitement with onii-sama's girl and some extra hunters! ONE of them you bite and got himself killed!"

Then Kisshu finally asks him, "So you're upset that he was killed and not that we were almost killed by a garlic gas bomb?"

"Of course I'm upset about that too!" he answers. "I'm also upset that you two had that little action because Onii-sama is on good terms with his girl." He said that part a little softer to avoid being heard, but they heard him and all Pai did was take a drink out of his glass and Kisshu looks at him with dead beat eyes.

He tells him, "Be lucky that your girl wasn't there. Mine was."

After hearing that, Taruto's eyes widen in realization as if someone just dropped a whole pile of books on his head. "Whoa, what?!" he asks, looking back at his older brother. "You mean…?" Kisshu only nods, now looking more depressed than ever.

"For all I know, they're all getting ready for another vampire massacre and are hunting us down to kill us all." Then his face faces the table and the gloomy shadow over his head gets gloomier. Pai lowers his drink and puts it down on the table. He's hoping that it isn't the case. Taruto sees that expression as well and his anger and shock just evaporated away. A face of pity replaces his face of disbelief.

"Wow," he says. He didn't know what else to say but ask, "Which one?"

Kisshu's voice became a muffle with his face against the table when he answered, "The red hair one."

Now he's surprised again. "Her?!" He whistles and comments, "She's a toughie."

"I know…"

Pai also adds, "You should have seen her when she found out."

Taruto had to ask, "Was it better or worse than when Pudding found out?"

"How's 'crazier'?"

"Oh…And I was supposed to worry about the gas bomb?"

While not too far from their table, Ichigo is with Lettuce and they're looking everywhere for any sign of Pai or his brothers. Lettuce mumbles to herself, "Where is he?"

"If he isn't here," Ichigo warns, "I swear I'm gonna fuckin kill every vampire in _this_ club, go back to the Blue Knight and report that we actually took revenge on the ones who killed Masaya."

Lettuce turns to Ichigo and pleads, "Ms. Ichigo, please. I know that this is the fifth vampire club we've tried but I'm sure that Pai is in this one. I just need to check." She raises her hand when she said that and her index finger is bandaged up in a white handkerchief.

Ichigo quickly grasps her hand and says, "If you prick your god damn finger one more time, I'm not gonna control myself if I see some other piece of shit of a vampire besides Pai put his filthy hand on you."

Lettuce asks, "And how did I take care of the others?"

Ichigo let out a sigh and lets go of Lettuce's hand. She crosses her arms over her chest and answers, "You did your famous 'let's have sex somewhere private' and you come back three minutes later with that vampire in agonizing pain with either a really bad beating or several wooden bullets in their bodies."

"Or…"

"Or some of them lost their balls."

"Exactly." Then her voice gets tender as she tells Ichigo, "I'll be fine. Just stay here and watch. If Pai isn't here, then you can take care of that vampire. But don't kill him."

"Pfft. Just because I left Blue Knight doesn't mean I'm gonna be vampire friendly."

Lettuce lets out a sigh when she heard this. But she knows that she can't change Ichigo's 'way of living' that easily. She tells Ichigo, "Just please stay here and behave." After that, she walks away and Ichigo is left to just stand there and watch as Lettuce goes towards the tables, next to the wall and she unwraps her already stopped bleeding finger. She takes out one of her daggers and stabs it again so that her blood could come flowing out as she quickly puts the dagger away and allows the scent of her blood to do the rest.

The scent hit Pai's nose like a falling piano only minutes later, it was unexpected and a shocker that he could smell it. Moments later, Kisshu and Taruto smell that blood too.

"What is that delicious smell?" Kisshu wonders, lifting his head up and sitting up straight while he continues smelling it. Pai looks at his brother cautiously as Taruto takes a bigger sniff of it.

Taruto comments, "It does have a certain…innocence to it."

"But who would allow their blood to spill everywhere?"

Both Taruto and Kisshu look at Pai curiously after he said that. Still acting like himself and trying to act like nothing is wrong, Pai tells them, "Allow me to check it out. If it's anything suspicious, I'll send the signal." Then before they could say anything, he gets up from the table and leaves.

Kisshu and Taruto look at each other curiously and Kisshu asks, "You know what's up his ass?"

Taruto raises his brows and shrugs his shoulders. "You got me and glad to see that you're back to your old self." Kisshu glared him for a moment on that part. Then they both look back at where Pai is heading, curious on his insisting behavior.

As Lettuce continues to be on the lookout, a vampire approaches her with hungry eyes and extended fangs. The problem is that he's the same vampire from last night.

"We meet again, sweet thing."

Lettuce jumps when she heard that familiar voice. She looks at him, alarmed that he's here and he's examining her with those silver eyes of his. Now she's in danger because last time she saw him, he saw her getting 'bitten' by Pai so that he could leave her alone.

"You know, vampires aren't meant to bleed and judging by your expression," he leans closer to her, close enough for his hand to lean against the wall she's up against, "you remember me. Newly turned vampires aren't meant to remember their once humans lives, no matter how long ago it was before they were bitten."

Ichigo sees that vampire and how close he is to Lettuce and how uncomfortable she is with this vampire near her. "Oh fuck." She starts walking towards them, pushing aside anyone in her way. Now for some stress reliever.

_Swoosh_

_Stab_

Ichigo stops walking and her eyes are wide with surprise, just as Lettuce's are when she lost the feel of her silver dagger from her back and she sees the blank eyes of the vampire before her. Without much attention from the other vampires, the vampire in front of her burns into ash and scatters away to reveal Pai holding her dagger.

He passes her the dagger and says, "The guy just doesn't learn, does he?" Then he grabs her bleeding hand, the one he didn't pass her dagger to, and brings the bloody finger to his mouth. He puts the finger in his mouth and licks the blood away. Ichigo watches carefully but she sees, as best as she could, Pai piercing his own mouth and then allowing his blood to drip over Lettuce's wound. When he licked it away, the wound healed without a single wound to show that it ever existed. When he removes her finger, he asks, "Are you alright?"

Lettuce looks like she's ready to cry, much to his confusion. Her eyes are glossy and her bottom lip is quivering. She nods and tries not to cry, but seeing his sweet face again pushes her over the edge. "Oh Pai." Then she suddenly goes up to him and gives him a passionate kiss, her arms rising up to circle around his neck so that she can pull him close to her. Now Pai is really confused, especially when the kiss feels desperate and deeply relieved. Seeing this, Ichigo couldn't help but a bit sorry for Lettuce. She almost lost Pai again. When Taruto and Kisshu see this, they were beyond shock and almost speechless.

Taruto leans up to Kisshu and asks, "Isn't that the girl who was with the vampire hunters from before?"

Still keeping his eyes on them, Kisshu answers, "Yeah."

"And isn't she supposed to be Onii-sama's lover?"

"Yeah."

Noticing that his answers sound the same, Taruto comments, since Kisshu is really too shock to think straight. "Doesn't look like the kind of girl who's an owner of innocent blood to me."

Kisshu slowly shakes his head this time as he's still watching. "Not at all."

After a moment to regain himself, Pai pushes Lettuce back and he asks, "Lettuce, what's wrong? Why are you here?"

But Lettuce's hands go to his face and she cups it before calling his name again. "Pai, I…" Then she starts crying, tears rolling down her eyes like crystal marbles.

"Lettuce?"

"We had to leave."

Pai looks up to the side and he sees Ichigo standing only a feet away, defiantly looking upset to be here and trying to be serious in this situation. It became a shocker to see her here as well, especially when Taruto and Kisshu saw her.

"Ichigo," Kisshu whispers, unable to believe it. He even stands up to walk over where his elder brother is and Taruto follows him.

"Leave?" Pai asks, still confused.

Ichigo answers, "Yes. The Blue Knight thought that Masaya, the hunter that was bitten, was a spy because we didn't tell him the real reason why we were out there. But he really suspects of Lettuce being the spy. So after telling us that we are to leave the country and stay low for a while, he wanted me to follow Lettuce and tell them where you are hiding and we could finish you all off once and for all, if she had left our base to go to you."

Lettuce lowers her hand and tries to say, "I didn't want to leave you again. I just got you back and I don't know if you'll believe me this time if I left and told you through a letter."

"We went through four other vampire clubs and don't get me started on how many vampires pinched or slapped my ass!"

"You really don't like vampires," Pai says, almost sounding like a question.

Ichigo huffs before saying, "I hate vampires. Every single one of them."

"Ichigo."

Hearing her name, Ichigo looks up, pass Pai, and she sees Kisshu standing there with Taruto by his side, staring at her with apologetic, nervous eyes. "Ichigo, I…"

He doesn't know what to say. She can see that and all she does is stand there.

"Hello, Kisshu," she greets. He still didn't know what to say. He only stood there, staring at her. But yet again, what could you say if you just found out that the person you wanted to kill is your childhood friend that you haven't seen in over eleven years and she hates what you are.

After a moment, Ichigo looks back at Pai and asks, "Do you have any place private we can talk? Someplace secretive where if someone tried to follow us, they would get lost."

Now they're all looking at her in confusion. Pai answers, "Yes, why?"

"Because someone's been following us since we left our base."

Their eyes widen in shock to hear this. Ichigo adds, "I don't know who or what it is since I've been _distracted_ but I know that he or she's been following us for a while now. It's not here now but I know it's still here."

"Then follow us, this way," Kisshu tells her. He even approaches her and his hand was going to grasp her arm and lead her the way, but she pulls her arm away from him. He was startled when she did that, but she doesn't say anything, nor does she look at him. There was silence for a moment, until Pai grasps Lettuce's hand and pulls her from the wall.

"This way."

They both lead the way and Ichigo follows behind them, not once looking up at Kisshu. He follows her and Taruto follows him. As they were walking through the crowd, Lettuce wraps her arm around his and he looks down at her from the hug. She had on that really sad, after shock face on. She was really upset and all he could do at the moment was squeeze her hand back to reassure her.

Also on the way out of the club, one vampire sees Ichigo and instantly started examining her body. When she passes him, he took that chance to slap her butt. She stopped when she felt that and she growls in frustration before going to the side of her hip and takes out a gun. She just about to fire the gun as soon as the socket was at the vampire's head when she sees Kisshu pushing the guy on the floor, his foot pressing down on the center of the vampire's back and his hand gripping the vampire's arm that's pulled behind him. Noticing that they stopped, Pai and Lettuce stop walking and they turn around to see this as Taruto is a bit surprise that Kisshu is doing this, Ichigo sharing his surprise.

The vampire yells, "Ow! What the fuck, man?!"

"Don't give me that, you dumb shit!" he calls, his voice full of poison and his eyes really angry and very dangerous. "If you ever do that to her again, you're not gonna leave with just this." Then he pushes his arm all the way to the floor, breaking it in the process.

"AAH!" the vampire screams from the massive pain. Then Kisshu walks to his broken arm and stomps on the fingers, loud _cracks_ being heard in the process. "AAAHHH!"

"You'll be dead next time, but not until after I break every bone in your body." Then Kisshu spits at him and looks up at Ichigo. She looks at him then but she only keeps his gaze for a moment.

She puts the gun away and says, "I can take care of myself. I don't need your help." Then she looks back at Pai and Lettuce and asks, "Are we going or not?"

Without saying anything, they start walking again and Ichigo follows them. Kisshu got his hand in a tight ball but he controls himself before he decides to break the in-pain vampire's neck. He follows them shortly after and Taruto does the same, except he decides to walk a little faster so that he could go up to Ichigo.

"Hey!" he calls. She looks down at him from the corner of her eyes and he says, "I know that this whole truce thing is new and we were just trying to kill each other yesterday, but there is something I want to ask and I would like an honest answer."

Ichigo tells him, "Go on."

Taruto then prepares himself and he tries to use the right words so that he can ask, "Is Pudding…okay?"

She should have known that he would ask about her but her experiences of vampire behavior clouded her judgment. Still she answers honestly, "She's fine. Angry and upset and I suspect that she's actually really hurt, but she's trying to be strong. Before, she only wanted to kill Deep Blue for having his fangs in your neck and then kill herself so that she can meet you in the afterlife. But now knowing that you're still here, she added you to her 'will kill before I kill myself' list. She wants to save your soul and then follow you. Is that honest enough for you?"

During the whole answer, Taruto was shock to hear the words coming out of Ichigo's mouth. But after being asked that, he looks away in both guilt and shame. "Yes, it's enough."


	12. You’re Not Him

Ch. 12: You're Not Him

After leaving the club, there was silence between them most of the time. Half of the time because if there really is someone following Ichigo and Lettuce, then they don't want that person to know exactly where they're going. The other half of the reason why there is silence is because they couldn't say anything to each other. Lettuce still clings to Pai's arm, afraid that if she even loosens her hold by an inch, she would be taken away from him, Pai wanted to comforted Lettuce about her anxiety but not with an audience, Kisshu didn't know what to say to Ichigo, Ichigo didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment because she's still trying to think about the whole situation, and Taruto is lost in his own thoughts as well. His thoughts are all on Pudding and on some possibly impossible method of getting her back and making her realize that he really is her friend, Taruto. The five of them went outside and tried to keep on the lookout for the follower as Pai lifts up a sewer lid and jumps in. Then Lettuce came – Pai helping her in of course–, then Ichigo, Taruto, and Kisshu. Being last, Kisshu had to close the entrance. Then they started 'follow the leader' when it came to directions on where to go.

It's been several decades of minutes and there is still silence between them and there have been no sign of a follower, at least to the vampires and Lettuce. Ichigo finally stops walking and she lets out an exhausted sigh. Noticing that she stopped, Lettuce and Pai turn to look at her and Lettuce asks, "Ms. Ichigo, what's wrong?" Kisshu and Taruto stopped walking when Ichigo did and they're all staring at her in confusion.

Then Ichigo turns around to the tunnel they just came out of and she yells, "You can stop following us. I know it's you, Pudding!"

Hearing her name, Taruto's eyes widen and he started to feel disbelief and hope in his dead-beat heart. They all look to where she was yelling at and there was still nothing. But knowing Ichigo being a pro at what she does, not once do they doubt her abilities to suspect that Pudding is here.

Then something comes bouncing towards them. They all only got a second to know that it's a bomb before it went off.

_Boom_

A big puff of yellow smoke appears and judging from the smell of it, it's garlic. Luckily, the vampires were able to get everyone out of the way. Taruto jumped to the side, Kisshu grabbed a hold of Ichigo and moved away as Pai did the same to Lettuce. Even though they didn't have to since garlic doesn't bother humans but it was out of instinct and it happened so fast.

However, despite the fact of getting away from the bomb, they could still smell it. Lettuce and Ichigo got used to the smell of garlic, especially a big, massive amount of it. But vampires have sensitive noses and they're still pretty close to the smoke. They start coughing.

"Pai!" Lettuce calls, in worry as Pai leans against the wall and coughs. Taruto and Kisshu pretty much did the same. They lean on the wall and cough from the burning stench of garlic. When Ichigo sees Kisshu leaning against the wall while having a hard time breathing right in front of her, she couldn't help but feel a pang of worry and concern in her chest. What she did next was something she didn't have to think twice about doing.

Ichigo went to her belt and took out a small round device. She presses the button and throws it where they all were, in the center of the garlic cloud. The device opens a few compartments and then like a vacuum, starts sucking in the garlic smoke in a matter of seconds. Soon all that is left is the clean air of the sewers. Then Ichigo sees Kisshu move at the corner of her eyes. She looks and she sees him taking out a needle, similar to the one that she saw on the ground this morning. But this time, the formula is in the needle is silver. He injects it into his arm and allows the formula to do its works.

Ichigo had to ask, "You have a yellow formula for silver infection and a silver formula for garlic?"

He faces her and asks, "You think you're the only one who thinks that's weird? Where did that bomb come from anyway?"

"Just stole it from our tech guys before we left. I thought it would come in handy. It's good for smoke bombs."

Pai and Taruto took out similar needles and they inject the silver formula in to their upper arms as well. Soon they stopped coughing and their breathing returned to normal. That was a scare to Lettuce for a minute.

"Stay here," Ichigo tells Kisshu before going out into the open. He watches her as she yells out, "Pudding, come out now! Or I promise you that I won't show you any mercy." The others wait for any response, any at all and it was making Taruto a bit anxious.

"Why are you doing this, na no da?!" she finally asks, her voice echoing in the tunnels.  
"Were you the spy all along, Ichigo onee-chan?"

"No!" Ichigo answers. "No one was the spy! There was never a spy."

"Then why was Lettuce onee-chan out there last night, na no da? She led Masaya onii-chan to his death, na no da!"

Hearing that, Pai holds Lettuce to him and she snuggles closer to his chest, feeling a wave of guilt for Masaya's demise.

But Ichigo answers, "No, she didn't! None of us knew that it was going to happen! Call it a cruel twist of fate!"

Then Lettuce gets out of Pai's hold and rushes over to Ichigo's side. She was looking for Pudding as she yells, "Ms. Pudding, listen to me! Before I met any of you, I met a vampire I couldn't kill. I was secretly seeing him and when I met Ms. Ichigo and the others, I had to leave him. Those years I was away from him were the worst years of my life. Please understand that when I saw him again last night and we arrange to meet like how we did before, I wasn't thinking of the consequences of my actions. I didn't know that Mr. Masaya was going to follow me."

"Why didn't you kill him, na no da?!" Pudding asks, still not revealing herself. "We're hunters who kill vampires without hesitation, na no da! What was so special about this one, na no da?!"

"I couldn't kill him because he was wounded and I wasn't a cold, heartless killer like my parents! I hated being a hunter! Killing vampires is no different than killing humans."

"There is a difference, na no da! Vampires have no soul, no heart, and no feelings, na no da!! They're monsters who feed and play with humanity as if they're nothing more than animals, na no da."

Now Taruto is getting a bit upset. "Pudding!" he calls, coming out. "Stop playing hide and seek and come out already!!"

Wish granted.

There was another bomb that came rolling out from the opposite side of where Taruto is and it exploded. But instead of garlic gas or silver nitrate exploding, it was a regular bomb that was made of gun powder and it was a distraction. Ichigo knew this when she felt Pudding's presence rapidly coming towards Taruto. She wasn't able to scream because by the time she turned around to try and warn Taruto, she sees Pudding right in front of him and with a raised fist. She punched him right in the jaw and he goes flying.

"Taruto!!" Kisshu calls.

Taruto hit the ground and he didn't get up. On his cheek are at least four deep scratch marks that are bleeding. They burn too and there's a reason for it. On Pudding's hands are fingerless motorcycle gloves with four spikes on the knuckles and they're made of silver, dripping with garlic essence. Ichigo and Lettuce didn't see that weapon before. Keiichiro and Ryou must have invented it before they introduced it to them and Pudding was either given it or she stole it too.

When Taruto didn't get up immediately, Pai and Kisshu went to his aid. Or rather Pai did. Kisshu crunch down in front of his brothers and bared his fangs and hissed like some kind of animal, like how a mother lion does to protect her cubs. Pudding only glares at the interference. Pai lifts Taruto up so that he can get a better look at the scratches and judging by how it's not healing, he goes to his pocket to take out the yellow formula. He injected it in the leg and Taruto grits his teeth from that pain. But it worked. His wound started to heal and like the wound on Kisshu's shoulder, it's gonna leave a scar.

"Pudding," Ichigo calls, getting her attention. "Put the new weapon down and listen."

"Why should I, na no da?!" Pudding asks, turning to her. "Or better yet, why should I listen to anything you two have to say, na no da?! You both left Blue Knight to be with these leeches, na no da?!"

"Ms. Pudding, please," Lettuce pleads again. "They're not as evil as we were told to believe. If we just paused for a minute and talk to them, we can see how good they really are."

Pudding glares at her more deadly than she did when she looked at Ichigo. "You have no right to tell me what's wrong and what's right, na no da! The only thing you know is good about them is how good that suckhead is in bed, na no da." That almost made Pai get up and clobber her, but Taruto stops him by placing his hand on his elder brother's shoulder before he could even get up an inch. Taruto took that moment to push himself up and his brothers only stayed where they are and watch.

"Pudding, just calm down already," Ichigo tries to tell her, getting a little bit irritated about this whole thing, but Pudding still refuses to listen.

"No, na no da!" she screams. "How could you, na no da?! The both of you, na no da! You both have been fighting and killing vampires your whole lives and you choose them over us, na no da?!! I don't understand it, na no da!!"

"Pudding," she hears Taruto call. She looks at him this time and she sees him standing and taking small easy steps towards her. After he passed the girls, Kisshu and Pai stood up and continue to watch, wondering what their little brother would do. "Pudding, calm down."

Quickly, she goes to her pocket and she takes out a bomb. "Stay back, na no da!!" Taruto stops and the others flinch in surprise. This bomb is different from the bomb she used before. However, Pudding's hand is shaking. They can all see this. She tells them, "A bomb that shoots out silver nitrate darts, na no da. If I set it off right here, right now, then we all will die, na no da."

"Pudding!" Ichigo calls as stern as she can while she takes a step towards her. "Don't be stupid."

"I'm not stupid, na no da!" Pudding yells.

"No," Taruto tells her. "That's why you're putting the bomb down."

"No, na no da! I've been prepared to die since the say Taru-Taru was killed, na no da."

"Pudding, I'm right here!" he tries to tell her.

Then she screams, "Shut the fuck up, na no da!! Taru-Taru is dead, na no da!! He was killed, murdered by that bastard, Deep Blue, na no da!!"

"Deep Blue didn't kill me. He saved me, Pudding." When they hear this, Pudding and Ichigo took at him in confusion and he explains, "I was dying, Pudding. I didn't know how much longer I had left and I was already pushing my body too far. Deep Blue came and he offered me an escape. I accepted because I just wanted to see you one more time."

Pudding is going to cry. Everyone can see this too. After so long, eyes begin to whelm up in tears and they're showing so much pain. She wants to believe this. She really does but she can't. She just can't.

"No, na no da," she protests again. "You're not Taru-Taru!" However when she told him this, she was looking down at the ground. "You're not him, na no da."

Then Taruto took a chance. He goes up to her, lowers her bomb and grabs her arms to make him look up at her. Quickly, she starts struggling.

"Get your fuckin hands off of me, na no da!!" she screams, now not sounding as strong as she did before.

Taruto shakes her and yells, "Not until you answer me one thing!!" She looks up at him and he asks with a softer tone, "Do you really believe that I'm not Taruto?"

Pudding looks down at the ground and she answers, "Yes, na no da."

"Then say it to my fuckin face!!"

She looks back up at him in surprise and now he's the one who's angry. "If you honestly believe that I'm not your friend then I want you to look at me in the eye and tell me."

And so she tries. She first gulps and then starts, "Y-Y-You're…you're…you're…" He sees her struggling and now he's seeing tears rolling down her face. "You're…you're not…" Taruto loosens his hold on her arms and pulls her to a hug. "You're…you're…"

"That's enough now," he tells her, softly. "You can stop now. It's alright." She does stop but not her tears.

"WAAAAAAHHH!!!!" she sobs, her cries echoing in the sewers. "Taru-Taru!!"

Taruto smiles from the sound of his nickname and he holds her closer. "I'm right here, Pudding. I'm right here." She doesn't answer. She only continues her crying.

As the others watch this, Lettuce couldn't help but smile. The worst is over. Then she felt Pai placing his hand on her shoulder. She looks up at him and he smiles at her. She places her hand over his and looks back at her friend before them. He must have approached them, now knowing that it's safe to do so. Kisshu approach them as well and he smiles too, happy to see his younger brother happy but Ichigo looks away. She is happy for Pudding too, and relieved, but there is still a heavy load on her heart that's keeping her from smiling. She turns around and silently walks away so that no one would notice. But someone did notice. He sees her move from the corner of his eye and he looks to see Ichigo leaving. He decides to follow her, mostly because something inside him tells him to and that she might get hopelessly lost in this sewer maze if she wonders too far.

Ichigo walks a few ways away from her friends and the other vampires. But when she was far enough away to the point where she couldn't hear Pudding sobbing, she stops and says, "I know you're following me."

Kisshu comes out of hiding and says, "You are good." Ichigo turns around to face him as he walks up to her. He asks, "Is something wrong?"

"No," she answers. "Not really." He doesn't believe that.

"Ichigo, I've known you for at least two nights and I know you're a strong person. If something is bothering you, then it's something to be concerned about."

Hearing this made Ichigo let out a sigh. She looks up at him and says, "We've also known each other when we were kids since the day we were born." Hearing that made Kisshu mentally slap himself.

"Oh yeah, right," he says, looking to the side a bit embarrassed. Ichigo lets out another sigh.

"If you are, and I mean really, my best friend from a long time ago, then how the hell do you expect me to just live with that?!" He looks back at her when she asked that. "My whole life I've always thought you were dead and then you just suddenly appear before me, especially after killing a comrade of mine."

"Hey! I was near a silver factor when I didn't take my cure and that guy attacked me first!" he tries to explain. "It was out of self-defense."

"That's why you sucked him dry?"

"It was also out of survival and someone like me has a hard time controlling my instincts."

Ichigo raises a brow to that. Like she's gonna believe that someone who's been a vampire just as long as she's been a vampire hunter has a hard time controlling himself when blood is involved? Seeing her expression, Kisshu closes his eyes to mentally tell himself to calm down before speaking again.

"Look," he starts, "I'm not going to explain myself because it doesn't change the fact that it happened, he's dead, and you're right here in front of me without a gun being pointed at my fricken head. I may not completely remember my human life since I'm having a hard time understanding them but…" he pauses for a moment, which causes Ichigo to be curious. He took that moment to prepare his next words. "…but I know that when I look at you, I feel like…I feel like a part of me – a part of my human life- came back and I should cherish that piece. Because more than anything, that piece is the most important thing to me."

He stares at her, waiting and she looks at him with wide eyes. That confession almost sounded like an eternal love confession. Which is a little weird since it's only been two days and their meetings haven't exactly been the best in the world.

She asks, "Is this the part when I supposedly cry and fall to your arms while screaming your name over and over again like Pudding?"

Warm heartedly, Kisshu smiles and then he gets closer to her and wraps his arms around her so that he can hold her in a warm and very gentle hug. Her eyes widen more when he does this. She didn't even move to stop him. Somehow, no matter how slow it actually took for him to do this, it felt like the hug happened all too fast for her to react. "You don't have to do that," he tells her, "because right now, I want to do that. I don't know if I can say this but I've missed you so much, Ichigo. My dear, sweet kitty."

So many memories rushed through Ichigo's mind. His scent that she can smell from his body is so familiar and his touch is just the same. From memory, everything is the same. In her heart, there is no doubt whatsoever that he's really Kisshu, her Kisshu from their happy childhood days. Especially when he called her by her nickname that he gave her because of her love for milk and fish. She won't say it now but she missed him as well. She missed him more than he can ever realize. But as of right now, she simply just stands there, her arms limping to the side while his arms are around her body.


	13. Hatred, Disbelief, Horror…Oh My

**A/N: Hey guys! Okay, because I got a review from ****.Datenshi****, I've decided to let this chapter out early. I was also done with it after I unleashed chapter number 12. I just wanted to keep with my every three day thing. But I'm anxious, especially when we're about to reach a bit twist in the story. Maybe most of you figured it out or not, oh well. It get's revealed today!! The BIG secret!! I hope you all like it!**

**Also because I'm letting this chapter out early, that means that the next chapter isn't coming out for about 5 days. It's out two days early, sorry guys.**

**I do NOT own TMM or the songs or the movies I use in my stories. I only come up with the ideas and changes. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews and please keep them coming! I enjoy every single one of them and I'm glad you all like this chapter since it's my first Rated M story. It's probably not really Rated M but I didn't want to take my chances with all the F bombs flying all over the place. Also, there will be lemon again. So for those who are horny, I hope you like the lemon when it comes up. It'll come soon.**

**Thank you and please enjoy!!**

Ch. 13: Hatred, Disbelief, Horror…Oh My

Ichigo didn't know how long it's been since Kisshu held her. Maybe it was a few minutes but it felt like seconds to her. Being his arms, his familiar arms, made time go by fast. The sound of Pudding's tears dying off didn't matter to her. Actually, she couldn't hear it. It was like all of her senses were turned half off. She only heard the sound of her own heart, she could only smell his scent, and she could only feel his touch.

When exactly was the last time someone ever held her like this? Where she's the one being hold with warm, loving arms and she has yet to hug the other back?

The last time, she faintly remembers being held by someone with her arms still at her side when it happened was…when she was still happy with her family. The Blue Knight only held her that one time because she hugged him and she needed comfort. When she was with her family, the last time she was held was when one of the animals in the farm died and she really liked that animal. It was a chick and she saw a cat eating it. It was actually the first time she wanted to kill something. But Kisshu stopped her when she grabbed the shovel and she cornered the cat.

"_Kitty, calm down!"_ he told her, grabbing her arms.

"_No!"_ she screamed. _"That monster killed my friend! I hate it! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!! Get off me!!" _Then she turned around to push him away but she ended up hitting him in the head with the shovel. She gasped and he stood there with the side of his face bleeding. Seeing his blood made her shake. She looked at her hands and dropped the shovel. The cat took that time to get away while it had the chance. _"Why?"_ she asked him. _"Why did you try to stop me? You got hurt. I'm sorry, Kisshu. I'm so, so sorry."_ She started crying after that and Kisshu looked back at her to see her cry.

"_Hey, kitty cat,"_ he called, approaching her. _"Stop crying, alright?"_ His hand went to her face and he pushed aside some hair strands from her face.

"_Why do you call me 'kitty cat'?"_ she asked him. _"Cats are monsters! They killed my friend without any care or remorse."_

"_Yes, that is true but that is how life works."_

Ichigo looked up at him when he said that and she was deeply confused. He smiled at her and then he hugged her. She stood there, surprised with her hands on the side, like how she is right now eleven years older.

"_I know that it's terrible but it's how life is. We humans are no different. We kill the chickens that we took care of to eat, just as we take the ducks and cows. Why do you think we have food on the table? We humans are no different than the cat. And the reason why I call you 'kitty cat' is because you act like it at times. Even from great heights, you land on your feet if you jump or fall off, you have a six sense like you can detect danger from miles away, you love fish, and you love milk. And you know what? I think cats are one of the cutest things in the world. You, Ichigo, you're also cute. Like a little kitty._

"_The next time that you see a 'monster' attacking something precious to you, just remember this. Sometimes to get things, something must be taken away. The cat got a meal when it killed the chick, the chick went to a better place, and you're getting a shoulder to cry on. I'm here for you, kitty cat. I always will be."_

_**Sometimes to get things, something must be taken away.**_

Ichigo still didn't get it back then but when she was told that she gets a hug because she was upset and one from her precious friend, she only cried on his shoulder from the lost of her chick. Now here she is in Kisshu's arms again after losing him. But if that saying is true, then there is one thing she is confused about.

"Kisshu," she calls to get his attention but then she felt his body stiffen. He releases her and places his hands on her shoulders. She didn't understand it at first and he was looking to the side like he heard something bad but wants to make sure he heard it. She called him again, "Kisshu?" But then he lets her go and goes running off in the direction he was staring at. "Hey!" she calls, before chasing after him, rather upset that he just ran off like that.

Vampire using super speed or not, Ichigo could find him because she's rather fast as well thanks to a life time of training. But he was still faster and he would be getting farther and farther away from her. Still didn't matter. She could sense his presence so long as she concentrates on him. But soon, she felt other presence coming up to catch up with Kisshu. She recognize them as Pai and Taruto and she felt Pudding's and Lettuce's presence desperately trying to catch up with them. Something caught their attention and it's causing them to run to it in rapid speed.

Then they stopped.

When Ichigo arrived at the area they were so desperate to get to, she sees several tunnels blocked off with a door. She actually see four doors, three closed and one partially open. From the partially open one, she hears a terrible cough and she hears other things as well.

"His temperature is rising!"

"Check his eyes! I'm getting the IV now!"

"They're yellow. Garlic infection!"

"But I thought it was all sucked up."

"Some of it must have escaped and came here."

"Could you two stop talking and get the cure?! His lungs are collapsing!"

Ichigo took a moment, listening to all of that. She's catching her breathe and she was staring around at her new surroundings. It didn't take long till Lettuce and Pudding finally caught up. They were a lot more exhausted from the run than Ichigo was. Ichigo is used to this speed and distance, them not to much. Especially to someone who's been hunting vampires since birth.

Lettuce asks, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Ichigo answers. Then she walks to the open door. Lettuce looked a bit nervous about this but seeing Pudding going up with Ichigo to see as well, Lettuce catches up to them.

In front of the opened door, they stood there for a minute, hearing more talking and movement inside. The sound of it almost sounds like a hospital in the emergency section or a patient's going from bad to worst in his room. They really shouldn't. They're basically the guest the guest in the vampire's lair but they ran off without so much of a warning or an explanation of what's wrong. That was reason enough for Ichigo to push the door open a little more, only to widen her eyes in shock and for her whole body to tense up to the point of not being able to move.

In the room, they all see four vampires. The three they all know and one who they've been hunting since they decided to become vampire hunters. They see Deep Blue sitting in a master's chair looking very grey and very weak, almost pathetic compared to when Pudding and Ichigo last saw him. His skin that used to be wickedly pale and yet so scary beautiful is now wrinkly, flabby, it reveals every bone in his body. His now closed eyes have sunken into the sockets of his skull and the bags under his eyes could almost be mistaken for really bad bruises. His long black hair that used to represent the dark shadows of the heart is now all dried up with split ends and the color has dulled out to old black paint usually seen on old cars. It lost its shine and its horrifying radiance. This once powerful vampire that they spent their whole lives hunting is sitting on his chair, looking pathetic and whimpy, with a bad cough and an IV attached to him. But instead he has blood entering his veins that's trying to keep him alive. He looked like a million dollar, lonely old man on his way to the grave with three nurses trying to keep him alive. Pai is making sure that the IV is working with the right amount of pressure and blood entering Deep Blue's veins, Taruto is injecting the garlic cure through the needle opening in the IV tubs, and Kisshu is on his knees, holding Deep Blue's head close to him in comfort.

Soon Deep Blue's coughs ceased and now he's just having a rough time breathing. But that's a good thing. Kisshu strokes Deep Blue's hair and asks, "Father, are you alright?"

He nodded. "I'm fine. Thank you. But I believe we have company." He lifts his head up and he stares at the three shocked girls at the doorway. When they saw his eyes, Ichigo and Pudding were half expecting those frightening, monstrous light blue eyes that held no warmth, no love, and no compassion that they remember seeing when they found him feeding on Kisshu and Taruto. Now they're weak, the blue has dulled, and they were just downright disappointing. This was the vampire that made them vampire hunters?

The other three vampires look up as well and they're surprised to see the girls. They were so distracted they didn't notice them, let alone remember that they left them in the middle of the sewers without a word. Deep Blue lifted himself up as best as he could with Kisshu still holding him as he greets, "Evening." When his eyes fell on Ichigo, he says, "The last time I saw you, you were only a child. You've grown rather beautifully."

Even though it was a compliment, Ichigo gritted her teeth in anger and her firsts are in tight balls as if she was being mocked. Every fiber of her being wanted nothing more than to kill the vampire before her. She even said, "I should kill you for what you did to Pudding and to me."

Hearing her, he said, "Yes. I would understand if you kill me right now."

Surprised by his words, Kisshu told him, "Father, save your breathe." Hearing that made Ichigo more angry.

"However," she started, getting their attention again, "right now, there are a few questions I want to ask you. If Taruto, Pai, and Kisshu weren't standing before me, speaking words of good about you, I would kill you without a second thought. But because they are, I will give you a chance to at least explain yourself."

Lettuce is by far amazed that Ichigo is controlling herself this well. Now her body is shaking with rage and her desire to kill but she is still standing exactly where she is without moving a finger towards her gun.

"My first question, were you the cause of Kisshu's and my parents' death?"

Deep Blue's dull eyes now fill up in sadness and guilt as he answers, "Yes."

"Are you the vampire who offered an escape from death to Pai, as he was dying on the battlefield in war?"

Pai was a little surprise to hear that, but yet again Lettuce did tell him that she told Ichigo about what happened between them. So her knowing about how he was turned really shouldn't be that much of a shock.

Deep Blue nods, the regret and sorrow still in his eyes, "Yes."

"Is it true that you also offered the same deal to Taruto so that he can see Pudding's face again?"

"Yes."

"Did you really tell Kisshu about his human life before he got his memories back?"

Again, he answers, "Yes."

"Then why the fuck did you murder my parents?! What was so different about them that made you kill them?! It's because of you I'm a hunter!!" she finally yells, losing a bit of her temper. "And why the bloody hell is Kisshu calling you 'father'?! You killed his family too!"

Taruto yells, "Deep Blue didn't kill anybody!"

Ichigo became surprised by that. "Didn't kill anybody?! He confessed he did!"

"He confessed that he's the reason they're dead," Pai reminds. "He didn't say that he killed them with his own hands."

This time, Ichigo didn't act like she was caught off guard. She was prepared. "You think I'm a fool? I saw it with my own eyes!"

"What exactly did you see?" Taruto asks.

Now she's confused. "I would think that he has already told you since you're all such close family members."

"Answer the question, Ichigo!" Kisshu commands. She didn't expect that, especially when he's looking at her rather protectively. If he wasn't her childhood friend, this was the face she was expecting from one of Deep Blue's minions.

But he is her friend and she needs to answer him.

"I saw my parents and your parents dead on the floor surrounded by fire and him in the center of it with his fangs in your neck."

"Was there blood on the ground?" Pai asks.

Oh, so they do know.

"Of course," she answers.

Taruto asks, "How much?"

"Why does that matter?"

"How much, Ichigo?" Kisshu asks, sounding stern again.

Still not getting where they're at, she answers, "A lot of blood to prove to me that all four of them were dead."

"And why would a vampire leave so much blood?"

That question she did not expect. She remained speechless with confusion and surprise as Pudding finally asks, "Do you mean somebody else killed them, na no da?"

Kisshu, still holding Deep Blue's head in his arms and petting it like he's a child, nods with mournful expression on his face. "Yes."

That answer made Ichigo's lips form a straight line and her jaw set. How exactly is she going to believe that?

Still she asks, "If he really didn't kill them, then why were they killed?! They were murdered for a reason, right?"

"They were murdered," Deep Blue spoke, finally getting to answer after his 'sons' answered for him, "because of me."

Kisshu looks back at Deep Blue with tender eyes and continues to pet him. Then he spoke again. "Deep Blue is my godfather. That's why I call him 'father', Ichigo." He paused for a moment to let it sink in before he spoke again and it hit Ichigo as if it were a baseball coming at her fifty miles per hour. "My parents were formal vampire hunters. They retired to escape to the country side."

"Kimiko was pregnant when they retired," Deep Blue added, cutting in again. Ichigo remembers that name. It was the name of Kisshu's mother. "She wanted a child, but not in a world where vampire hunters kill just because a vampire was in the area. She reminds me a lot of your friend, Ichigo. She didn't kill without a reason like the rest of the hunters." Lettuce blushed a bit when the attention was turned to her but Deep Blue kept on talking. "Robert felt the same. That was how they both met in the first place." When he said that however, it was like his voice was completely covered in sorrow. It would be obvious to know that his voice was like that because they're both gone, but Lettuce found a different reason.

"You loved her, didn't you?" she asks.

He looked at her in surprise that she figured it out. But he soon put on a sorrowful smile. "She was the first hunter to show such kindness to me in all of my thousands of years of life. But unlike Pai, I was not so lucky to receive her love in return for mine. She gave it to Robert and if he made her happy, I was okay with it. They soon retired and escaped the world of killing. It was no place to raise a child. I came when I could but I came to see only them and their little one. I didn't visit them when they were with their neighbors. It was a world where I did not dare to enter, a world that they wanted to live in. So I simply watched and I saw how they were able to adjust to that peaceful life."

"I knew who he was," Kisshu said. "I just didn't know what he was. Mom and dad never told me about vampires, let alone told me that they even existed. But despite how close I was with you, my parents made me promise not to tell anyone about him. Not that it did any good. He found us anyway."

"He, na no da?"

"My brother," Deep Blue answers. "A half vampire, half human. A being who can stand the sunlight, handle garlic and silver, eat foods like humans and breathe air like they do, but he can regenerate just as fast as a pure blood vampire, live just as long as one, he has their strength and speed, and he only needs a small amount of blood every month to survive. An indestructible vampire being. But to be created as one, my mother was a vampire and my father a human. I was luckily born as a pure vampire but he got the best of both races. But being born a human, he was shunned by the vampire society. And so, he has been hunting me ever since because I was considered the favorite. He found out about Kimiko and Robert and their perfect home in the country. He attacked them at your house, killing your parents in the process as you were in the barn, attending to a horse I accidently spooked. I tried to save them but by the time I got there, they were already dead and the house caught on fire. Kisshu, however, was still alive. I promised them that I would protect him and if anything should happen to them, I would take him as my son. Even if they didn't promise me anything, I couldn't bear to watch him die. So I turned him and that was when you came in and you saw me biting him. Then you fainted and he took you away."

_Ba-dum, ba-dum_

"That was the first and last time I saw you. I didn't know what he was going to do."

_Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum_

"Knowing him, I figured that he would kill you. I never imagined that he would raise you and train you to hunt me by encouraging the idea that I started that fire."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!"

_Boom_

She finally lost it but instead of unleashing it out on him, Ichigo punched the wall right next to her and created a rather large hole in it. Dust and cement particles glided around her until they started to fall to the ground. Pieces of the wall fell and roll to her feet. Her eyes are wide in disbelief and her heart is still pounding in her chest, causing the blood to pump faster in her veins and her face to red. Pudding and Lettuce stare at her in total surprise that she did that. They didn't expect it. Or rather they did as they heard more and more about the possibility that the Blue Knight is Deep Blue's brother and the murderer of Ichigo's family but they didn't expect a punch to the wall. The vampires are surprise as well. For a human, she really is as strong and fast as a vampire. But she has been training under a half vampire for eleven years.

"Just shut the fuck up," she mumbles, her voice small and a weak. But as she continues, it gets stronger and louder. "It's not true. He only lied about the fact that Kisshu was dead by being completely drained of blood. That was it! Now you're telling me that he lied about everything?!! How he came too late to save my family and could only save me?! How it was you who destroyed my life?! I may have left him because I felt like I couldn't trust him anymore but to hear this shit about you being the good guy, him being a half vampire, and him murdering my family, how the FUCK do you expect me to just believe all of that and go on with this life that no longer has any meaning?!!"

"Ichigo…"

She was so caught up in what she was saying that she didn't notice the recent movements of Kisshu. He's standing before her with sympathetic, caring eyes. Before she could progress him being in front of her, he held her in his arms like before. The others only watch as he told her, "I know it's a lot to take in and I know you're confused and hurt. But please believe us. I just got you back."

Believe Deep Blue? How could he ask that of her?

She ended up pushing him away and then slapping him right across the face.

_Crack_

Ichigo flinched when she heard that sound. She saw Kisshu raising his hand to go to his jaw and he _cracked_ it back into place. Slap, punch; doesn't matter. She could break his jaw any time, any method. At first, she didn't mind the fact that she could do that. But now she feels like just like that time when she hit him in the head with a shovel. She all of a sudden felt disgusted, horrid, and a monster for doing that.

"Just… stay away from me."

Then she turns around and runs way, pass Lettuce and pass Pudding, desperately trying to just get away. She didn't care if she gets hopeless lost in these tunnels. She just needed to get away. Away from Deep Blue, away from her friends, away from their boyfriends, away from Kisshu, and away from the truth that's still ringing in her ears.

XxX

"Ryou? Are you here?" Mint asks as soon as she opens the door to his room. She even calls, "Keiichiro?" Ryou and Keiichiro don't share rooms. Mint shares her room with him. She's just checking Keiichiro's room to see if they're both in here. Seeing that it's empty, she mumbles to herself, "Where is everyone? Lettuce, Ichigo, Pudding, and Ms. Zakuro are not in their rooms and Ryou told me that he was going to ask Keiichiro if he has some kind of device that I can't remember the name of it is now. He didn't come back and so far no orders were given about leaving. What the hell is going on?"

Mint was just about ready to turn around and walk away to search other rooms when the Blue Knight was right in front of her. She jumps from his sudden appearance and takes a few steps back to give them both personal space.

"Whoa!" she lets out. She places her hand over her heart and says, "Oh Blue Knight. Forgive me, I didn't see you there. Maybe I'm slacking off or something. Anyway, do you know where the others are? Did you tell them to meet somewhere before we leave?"

"We're not leaving, Mint," he tells her.

"Uh?" she asks, looking at him in confusion now. "We're not? Then what was that whole talk about leaving is the best idea since Masaya could be a spy?"

"He wasn't a spy," he tells her again. "It was an experiment to find the true traitor in our group."

"The true traitor?"

"Yes. And also, there is something I wish for you to help me with. Something I know you won't be able to refuse."


	14. I Will Protect You

**A/N: Hey guys!! I just want to let out a quick note that I know that some of you are reading this story partially because of the lemon I promise you all. Well here's the thing. There is a hint of lemon coming and there will be a bit of it in the next chapter, but not a whole lot. The REAL lemon might come in three or four chapters from now. I'm still deciding. So when the time comes, I want to give you a bit of taste of it in the next chapter and I want you to tell me how it is. If it's not too great, then I would know how dirty or how descriptive I have to be for the big one. So let me know, okay?**

**I do NOT own TMM or the songs or the movies that I use in my stories. I only come up with the ideas and the changes in them. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews and please keep them coming. I'm so happy that this story is starting to get a bit popular from one or two reviews a chapter to four a chapter. Yeah!! I'm happy.**

**Thank you and please enjoy!!**

Ch. 14: I Will Protect You

Ichigo must have run for miles. She just kept running to blow off some steam. Making her legs work and burn to distracted her from the cloud of confusion that still consumes her heart. Besides the burning of her lungs, the desire for water in her throat, and the sharp pains in her legs, there is another pain she's feeling, a pain she hasn't felt in her chest before. After a good long distance, she stopped and then panted. Her mouth open, her chest rising up and down, the pain in her legs numbing away, the sweat dripping down her brow and everywhere else on her body, and her skin feeling sticking and dirty. None of those feelings really matter anymore. The pain in her chest over powered them all. Then she realized what it was.

Heart ache, pain of a broken heart.

After running a great distance, she leaned on the wall of a tunnel and just sat there. She curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around herself and bringing her legs close to her body as her side leans against the wall. Many minutes passed or maybe hours for all she knew. She didn't care. As long as she was alone to her thoughts, she was okay.

Then a hand touched her shoulder and gently shook her.

"Hey, kitty cat."

It's Kisshu, with his hand still lightly shaking her still body while he sits down besides her.

"Kitty caaaat! Kitty cat, wake up."

"I am awake, Kisshu," she finally answers him. He instantly pulls his hand back when she answered. "I have been since I came here."

"Oh," he lets out after getting his answer. He still sits beside her but now with his back leaning against wall and his head turned to look at her. "Sorry. How ya doing?"

"What does it look like? She asks, like a stubborn child.

"Terrible. Were you like this all night?"

"It's morning already?"

He nods. "Pretty much. Crack of dawn actually. Everyone is starting to get ready for bed. Since there are only four rooms, Lettuce is sharing a room with Pai and since Taruto is finally on good terms with Pudding, she's sharing a room with him."

"And I'm supposed to share a room with you?" she asks, her voice almost bitter.

He tries to jock by saying, "Come on, kitty. Don't be so mean. I'm not that evil."

"Oh good god," she breathes out in disbelief. "How could you be thinking of something like that at a time like this?! I'm not in the mood, nor have I ever been! So get your fuckin head out of the fuckin gutter."

"You're the one having the dirty thoughts, kitty cat."

"Whatever. Just leave me alone and get some rest. I just want everything to stay away from me."

"Nope. Not tired."

But Ichigo knows that isn't the case.

"What part of 'stay away' do you not understand?"

"The 'away' part. Ichigo, I'm not an idiot."

"No, you're not. But you're still a dumbass."

"Okaaay… I'm not a dumbass either. I know you're upset about this, Ichigo. I would be too. I also know that you want to be alone and handle this all on your own. But I'm not leaving to let you do that."

"And why not? I'm not a damsel in distress, and you the dashing prince who saves me."

He tries to be cocky again. "You think I'm dashing?"

"Kisshu…" she calls, her voice sounding rather threatening.

"To answer your question, it's because how I look at it, you've been handling everything by yourself. You handled the pain of your life changing right before your eyes, you were the only one who handled the burden of keeping Lettuce's secret a secret, you handled the self control of keeping your feelings hidden away from the world, and right now, you're handling everything we just told you and the new pain it gave you. You're handling all of that by yourself, all on your own. I don't want you to do that."

"And why not? Just because you just found out that I'm the farm girl you _father_ mentioned before you could even remember my face?"

"It's not just that," he answers, ignoring the smeared word and the sarcasm in her voice. It's also because I know for a fact that you've been alone for the past eleven years. I want you to know for a fact that I don't want you to be alone anymore."

"What on this god forsaken, damn green earth makes you think I was alone all these years? Before I heard about this fucked up shit, I had the Blue Knight and I had the other members of our team."

"And which one of your teammates could you consort with? Lettuce is a humble, understanding, peacemaking girl and Pudding went through similar pain, but who understood you and knew you like he or she knew the back of his or her hand? Who made you laugh and smile on a regular daily basis? Who was there for you when you wanted a shoulder to cry on? Who knew you the way I or our parents did? And if you say it was that hunter from this morning, I'm gonna regret only biting him."

Ichigo chuckled once after she heard that. It was the first good emotional reaction she had since several hours ago. "Masaya only flattered me. He and I weren't close. I only saved his butt from getting fucked and sucked on by a vampire who crashed his graduation party."

"I see," he mumbles. He could have said 'Like I care' and Ichigo would have been fine with that. "But you get my point right?"

"I get your point but we haven't seen each other in eleven years!" she yells. "I've changed, and obviously you did too. I don't remember you always being this cocky or so carefree like everything is right with the world when really, it's not! How in all hell could you possibly understand me now?"

"Because if you're anything like the little girl I used to hold when we were kids, then I understand enough. I also told you that I understand that if it were the other way around for us, I would just be devastated, hurt, and confused as you if father lied to me and he killed my parents. Not like he doesn't already blame himself for what happened."

"He has every right to," she tells him, her voice sounding like her usual cold, hard self. "If his brother didn't find out about your parents and how he was watching over the woman he can never have and her perfect life with her happy family, then they would still be alive. Even my parents would still be alive."

This time, Kisshu looks away. He looks down at the ground before him with guilt and the sense of loss in his eyes as he mumbles to her, "No one knew it was going to happen. No one, not even father, knew that his brother would find us. I don't hold a grudge against father because he didn't know. There was no warning or alarm of danger ringing for him, or anyone, to hear when it happened. Why can't you at least understand that."

"The only thing that I don't understand is what you told me long time ago," she answers. "Do you at least remember what it is?"

Kisshu looks at her again in confusion of her words before he answers, "I told you many things, Ichigo. Many that my parents told me to help me understand."

"Then how's this for a clue? Cheep, cheep, meow, meow."

Kisshu's eyes widen at that. "The cat that killed your chick."

"Yeah." When she started to speak again, her voice that was well controlled and quiet became loud and almost out of control. "You told me that to get something, something must be taken away. Equal value. What exactly did our parents gain after their lives were taken away?! What did you and I gain after that night?! Because the only thing I see is that our parents are dead, you became a vampire that survives on the blood of humans, and I became a vampire hunter who hasn't cried since the day I thought you died!!"

There was silence for a bit and Kisshu was as shock as if someone just shot him in the chest. As the silence lasted a little longer, his features soften and he asks her, "You've been strong all these years because of me?"

She didn't answer right away. When she did, she nodded first. "You can say that. If I ever wanted to protect something again, I didn't want to be so weak that I couldn't. I trained every day till my hands bleed, till I drowned in my own sweat, till my legs were begging to give up, until I passed out. Truth was, it was my fault anyway. I'm the reason that they're dead."

He knew what she was talking about. "Ichigo, don't you dare say that! How could you have done anything back them? You were only seven years old."

"And yet I survived?! I am the only one who survived that night with my humanity and the terrible, happy memories that came with it! How is that fair?! The only thing I gained after my family was taken away was a broken heart and the horrifying sight that's been haunting me in my sleep. The corny part is that I haven't dream about anything else besides that image and I remembered every detail about it! Is that what I received after the best thing in my life was taken away?!!" Then her body begins to shake and she curls up more into a ball. Then he figured something out. He didn't even knew why he missed it when if it were a snake, it would have bitten him hard in the ass.

He asks her, "Were you and are you…crying Ichigo?"

On Ichigo's face are fresh tears, rolling down her face and leaving a wet trail behind on her nose and her cheek bones. Her bottom lip quivers, her eyes are red, and her eye lids are beginning to swell up. She's been like this since the time she stopped at this place. Knowing that he found out about her tears, Ichigo uses one hand to cover her eyes and she lowers her head till the point that her chin presses against her chest. More tears continue to escape her eyes and now some are dripping down to her ear closest to the ground. Kisshu moves a little closer to her and towers over so that he can see her tears. His face softens up completely.

"Oh, Ichigo." Then he lies down next to her and wraps his arms around her from behind. She didn't seem to mind when his arms wrap around her waist and pull her close as his chin leans on her shoulder. He whispers, "You said that you haven't cried since the day I 'died' right?" She didn't answer. She wouldn't dare. If she did, it would have been pitchy and then she might sob. "So many tears held back over the years." He pulls her closer, pressing her body to his. "It's okay to let them out. Nothing needs to be proved."

Then she spoke. "You're wrong."

As assumed, it was pitchy but she didn't sob. Something distracted her from crying like a baby right there and then. She takes his arms off her and instantly sits up so that she can face him and yell, "My tears did dry out the day I became a vampire hunter and even if they didn't, I wouldn't cry even if my life depended on it! Tears do nothing but show weakness! It shows anyone your weakness! What makes you sad, what makes you so angry to the point of breaking down, and what makes you happy! Even if I was completely alone in a room with no vampires or enemies a hundred miles near where I am, I wouldn't cry. It's a waste of time and effort."

"Is that what he told you?"

Ichigo's eyes widen in surprise as Kisshu sits up to be on level eye with her. "You shouldn't retain yourself from crying even if there aren't any enemies around. Being able to cry does give the enemy an idea of what they can use against you, but being able to cry shows that you have feelings. You have a heart, and having a heart makes you ten times stronger than you are now."

"What are you talking about?" she asks, now totally confused. "The heart only gets in the way of what needs to be done. You can't accomplish a mission if your heart is distracting you from your duties."

"Now shut up. I don't want to hear that asshole talking. I want to hear Ichigo talking."

"I am talking and these are my words."

"Yeah, words of poison that was pass down from one sick guy. Let me give you a new lesson about fighting. I know that you're unbelievably strong since you just put a hole in the wall and you broke my jaw, which is just as amazing as even punching a crack in the wall. But it doesn't matter how many walls you break down or how many bones you crack. None of that proves to me how strong you really are. You could be, physically, the strongest human alive but you're heart could still be weak. A dying man would still protect his love ones and man who has never held a sword before can still kill another man to protect his love ones. I bet you that if Lettuce ever gets kidnapped by another vampire or a human that overpowered her, as impossible as you may think that to be, Pai would not only fight to the death with the kidnapper but he would also destroy at least half of the city trying to look for her. If his life was in danger, Lettuce would also risk her life to protect him. Same would go for Taruto and Pudding and same thing would go to me." His hands rise to her face and he cups it with his hands. Her eyes are wide now as he's closer to her now, their foreheads only an inch away and he stares in her eyes, deep within her very soul as he says, "Defiantly, same thing would go for me. If anything even thinks of threatening you, I would protect you. Look what I did to that vampire in the club."

Ichigo looks to the side and she tells him, "You didn't have to do that. I would have taken care of him myself."

"And how much faster was I compared to you by the time you even reached you gun?" She looks back at him after that. He has a point. "You're just as important to me as father is. I promise to protect you both because you two are all I have left of my former life. I love you, Ichigo."

Her eyes widen again and this time she feels as though something has finally broken all these years. Like an evil spell, casted on her to make her heart as cold and hard as ice.

She still tries to avoid his eyes as she tells him, "Thanks for the thought and kindness, I guess. But rather what you just told is true or not, I already told you I can take care of myself. I have been for many years."

"Sometimes, people don't have to protect people from physical pain or physical damage. There's mental damages and mental pain as well. I promise you that you will never feel sad or lonely again."

Now she looks down at the ground and she can feel more tears gathering at her eyes. "Don't make promises you can't keep. But if you want to try, you can start by leaving me alone."

"Why?" he asks, a bit confused.

"Because right now, I feel disgusted and I might feel better if you leave me alone."

Well that's new.

"Why do you feel disgusted?"

"Because I look like shit right now!" she answers, almost screaming in annoyance. "Do I have to spell it out to you?"

Hearing that did startle Kisshu. But then he puts on half smile that says 'you're acting silly, you know that'. He tilts her head to him and she looks back up as now their nose lines are touching. "You look beautiful to me, kitty cat. You were adorable when you were a kitten and now you're a beautiful, full grown lioness."

She can literally taste the flavor of his breath in her mouth from being so close. For a name that means 'quiche', which is an egg pie pastry from France, his breathe tastes like mint chocolate. So irresistible and addicting and yet so refreshing and delicious. Like a sudden rush of warm, gooey goodness and a cold rush of release. To think that in one swift move, and she's strong enough to do so with his hand holding her face, she can get a full taste of his breathe and maybe even more. Her heart pounds in her breast, releasing pulses of passion and yearning throughout her body. Since when has she ever felt this way about anyone or anything? She's certain that she never felt like this when she was child. He was her dear friend, like a big caring brother who loved her like a sister.

And even though she's feeling like this now, he might not. Maybe that's all he feels towards her. A sibling love. Not a love between two soul mates that have finally reunited through the powers of true love.

Knowing this, and thinking that sudden desire to be absolutely ridiculous, tries to tell him, "A lioness has to hunt for the male while he does nothing but sit around and in pregnant them."

"True," he agrees. "But a lioness is also a good example of female independence, which I guess, suits you. Or do you want me to call you a jaguar, which is an example of exquisite beauty?" Okay now he's back to his carefree, cocky self.

'_Or you can just kiss me already,'_ Ichigo thinks, actually wishing that she would say that instead of only thinking about it. She tries to control herself but something is being released and it's starting to overpower her.

"Or you can…" she pauses. "…let me go and lead me back to the others. They're probably wondering where we are, or at least Lettuce and Pudding would be."

"I don't think you need to worry," he tells her, much to her surprise. "Because one of them has other things going on in her mind."

She was afraid of what that could be. "Like what?"

Then her heart begins to beat faster when a grin appears on his face. He leans a little closer and whispers, "Why don't I show you?"

Before Ichigo could even blink, Kisshu's mouth found hers and plants a sweet, loving, yet exciting kiss on her lips. Whatever was overpowering her is now being released. The chain broke and the lioness is hungry.


End file.
